Trouble's Path
by Torchix
Summary: It's the 4th Generation of the legacy series, and who knows what's going to happen now? After what happened last generation, it can only get safer, right? Wrong. Oh so wrong. Need SR OCs Kids urgently! Possible accepting new OC! Is a side-project for now
1. Episode 1:  Pilot

**ATTENTION****: I badly, badly need all the kids for the OCs from SR! I'm doing some for people, but I can't do everyone's! I've got two to do already for someone, and have had to pass at least one over to someone to help me, and it could be I have three to do instead of two. I need the kids, please! Please! D:**

**[A/N: It's the 4th Generation of the legacy series, and who knows what's going to happen now? After what happened last generation, it can only get safer, right? Wrong, oh so wrong.]**

**Heeeeeey guys, this is the 4th generation of the legacy series, yay! Yes, I know that SR isn't over yet, and I'm still considering doing another story with them when it is, but this is another side project that I can put up when I have block with SR or DtF, and have some fun with ^^**

**There's a new bloodline added to the main group this time, well… not strictly new to the story, just to the main group kid wise *giggle***

**Episode 1**** – Pilot**

"**Another generation has come along for the crew of the legacy series, children have been born to the formed couples that we know and love, as well as a new addition born of our faithful authoress, Gem. But who is the father of this child? No one truly knows, and whilst most of the group has their suspicions, all of them know better than to pry by now, just going about their daily lives with their children. For now, we join them at the age where their children are not all that old at all, to introduce ourselves to the future crew before their journeys start at age ten."**

A roughly nineteen year old Scarlet groaned as she tried to juggle several things at once, a young baby of no older than a year in one arm, another baby of the same age sat in a high chair, both waiting for food, which she was attempting to put into their baby bowls with one hand, a phone balanced precariously on her shoulder between the bone and her ear, trying to get an answer on the phone from someone. Breakfast was cooking on the stove for her and her fiancé as she did all this too, and she was trying to make sure it didn't burn. Typical of the elf-like man, he wasn't around to help, too busy getting their car to work so they could go off to a meeting with some contest and gym committee members, which they had to talk to due to their involvement in the competitions in the region now. The whole reason she was on the phone was to call someone to look after the kids for a while, Jaspa and Indigo were busy up at the lab, their curious one year old daughter loving to watch her father work, Nevee and TJ were already out with their son that day so she couldn't even call them, and she knew they could keep her twin daughter's occupied easily. So, all she was left with was trying to call Gem, and hoping she'd answer.

So far, she wasn't having any luck. Groaning as the phone went to messages again, she juggled to put the baby food down and redial the number, placing it back between her shoulder blade and ear, then just about managing to dish the baby food into their bowls and put it in front of the child in the highchair, feeding a couple of spoonfuls to the child in her arms, then slipping her into another highchair, cleaning it off as she placed the plate down on it, hoping the more boisterous of the near identical twins wouldn't throw her food everywhere again.

"Come on Gem… Answer… God…" Scarlet muttered, brushing some of her long, curly black hair out of her face as she held the phone in her hand instead of between her ear and shoulder now, checking on the breakfast and quickly getting it out of the various pans and things, putting it on plates before it burnt. They'd all only been off their journey for roughly two years and already she was starting to realize family life could be just as busy as being on the road. The young woman then heard a splat and clatter, and groaned as she turned to see that the baby she had just placed in her highchair had dropped her bowl on the floor again, throwing food everywhere, "Tamira! Stop that!"

With a sigh Scarlet went over and picked up the bowl, cleaning the floor up and putting more food in a bowl, sitting on the edge of the table and feeding the baby directly so that she didn't drop it everywhere again, phone balancing once more, sighing again as she heard the other twin cry, wanting attention too likely. Scarlet kissed Tamira's forehead, brushing the red fringe that was forming out of her face, ruffling her mostly short black hair too, then feeding the other child, Tamara (who's fringe was black and main hair red), from her bowl.

"Freaking _hell _Gemma you stupid fat mouth answer the damn ph-…"

"_Thanks a bunch Scarlet, don't take into account I have a seven year old boy to make get up and get dressed_," Gem's voice said from the end of the line, having picked up just before she starting insulting her down the phone, not thinking she was there. Scarlet went as red as her eyes and chuckled nervously.

"O-Oh… oops, sorry Gem…" she said in a nervous tone, "Just having a slight nervous breakdown here because this house is manic whenever Auberon and I are meant to be somewhere…" She continued, sweatdropping and then calling for Auberon to get the hell in there to eat, "And on that subject, we kind of need a twin-sitter."

A sigh came from Gem's end of the phone, and she sounded like she switched the ear she had the phone against, "_What about Jaspa and Indigo? Or anyone else?_" The Authoress said, sounding almost pleading, though she was trying to hide that fact.

"I tried. Everyone is busy, and I mean everyone. Anyone who is available is too far from where we're headed to give them to," Scarlet said, "I called you last, and besides, it is technically your job," She added, feeding more baby food to the two twins, "Please, Gem, we need someone to look after them, we can't take them to the committee meeting."

"…_Fine… fine…_" Scarlet heard her sigh, "_Bring them over… how long is the meeting again?_"

"It's all day, we won't be back 'til tomorrow, so you'll have 'em overnight," Scarlet said, "Sorry to drop this on you, but you're the last port of call."

Auberon walked in now, giving Scarlet a smile and a peck on the lips, taking the bowls from her so he could finish the feed, whilst also starting to eat some of his breakfast. Scarlet grinned at him, eating some of hers now she could hold the phone properly to her ear instead.

Gem sighed again on the phone, "_Fine, fine… I'll set up the spare room with a couple of cots… bring enough stuff…"_

"Thanks Gem… Really sorry about this," Scarlet said with a sigh, "We'll be there in about a half hour."

"_See you then…_" Gem's end of the line cut off right after she said this, a little click followed by a beep ringing into Scarlet's ear. She took the phone down and cut the call off on her end too, putting the phone back on its holder.

"We have a babysitter now," Scarlet said with a sigh of relief, "She's not too happy about it for some reason, but who knows why."

"Heh, I bet I do," Auberon said in a familiar tone, his ever childish teasing tone we all know from when he was ten years old in Scarlet's Road. Scarlet resisted her urge to facepalm, not wanting to teach Tamira how to splash food over her face or her sister's.

"Auberon, stop it," She said. Auberon chuckled, shrugging.

"If she keeps denying who that kid's father is, I can still keep making my very justified assumptions and teasing when she's not around to punch me," The elf-like young man said with a grin, sticking his tongue out which made little Tamira giggle, clap and copy him.

"Fu…nny!" She loved that word. Other than her other two words, which were Mommy and Daddy, the basics, she had learnt that rather quickly.

"Geez, stop wondering who Ethan's dad is, Auberon. If big mouth doesn't want to tell us, she doesn't have to. Arceus, we've pried into her personal life enough in the past few years. Besides, who cares who his dad is? Tamira and Tamara love hanging around with him, he plays with them as if he was their age, got that off his mom," Scarlet said, giving her fiancé a look, "Leave 'em alone."

"You can't say you don't have the same suspicion," Auberon said, grinning with an eyebrow raised, waiting for her answer. Scarlet tried to keep a straight face and shake her head, but couldn't, letting out a small laugh and folding her arms over her chest, shaking her head.

"You got me, I totally do. I mean come on, it's a little obvious, and she's hardly good at hiding it," The Ketchum laughed, leaning back a bit, "…Ah shit I bet that's why she was so annoyed about having to have the kids there… I bet he's there…"

"…Ah damn."

"She is so not going to be happy now, oooh boy…" Scarlet said, sweatdropping, then letting out a groan as Tamira managed to get hold of her bowl again and throw the remains over the all, making them all give deadpanned expressions… before Tamara burst out crying, "Oh how I love family life…" Scarlet sighed, picking up the normally calmer twin and hugging her to calm her down.

~X~X~X~

**_(Ashmore Residence – Pallet Town – Outskirts, 8:06)_**

Inside the small home a very familiar woman we all know as our authoress sighed, putting her phone back on its holder and chewing her lip for a moment, before heading back upstairs to her room, someone waiting on the edge of the bed for her. She walked into the room, and leant on the doorframe with a sigh.

"I have to go, hm?" The man asked with a sigh, his appearance and voice familiar to us, though not as familiar as the authoress. Gem sighed, walking over to him as he stood up from the edge of the bed, pulling on the jacket he had discarded only minutes beforehand, "Well, this was a short visit," He said with a small chuckle. Gem sighed, looking up at him from at least a foot height difference, maybe a couple of inches more. He leant down and kissed her forehead.

"You have about half an hour… and as much as I'd love to hog you for myself for that time, I think Ethan wants to see his dad whilst you're here," Gem sighed, reaching a hand up to touch his cheek, "One kiss though?"

"Gladly…" The man smiled, lifting her up with a hand on either side of her waist, bringing her up to the right height to connect in a kiss. Gem kissed back immediately as their lips connected, arms wrapping around his neck to help keep her in place. The pair stayed connected softly for a long minute, Gem's fingers tangling into his hair, before they pulled back and nudged noses.

"Ethan'll wanna see you now…" Gem murmured, stealing a small kiss again and then letting him set her down on her feet. The man nodded and kissed her forehead, whispering into her ear.

"I love you…"

"I love you too…" The man gave a smile and then walked out of the room to go and find his young son, who he hadn't had chance to see other than over a video phone for a long time. Gem sighed as he walked out, sitting on the bed and fiddling with two rings around her finger which she only ever wore around the house so that no one saw them. It was hard trying to pull off an ultimate long distance relationship like this, even if getting between the two places was relatively easy, getting time was not. They rarely got more than two days together in either place, and most of that time was dedicated to letting Ethan see the missing part of his family.

"Mama come on, come play with us before Papa has to go!" A small boy's voice called for her, a head popping around the door to the room, grinning widely with little dimples in his freckled cheeks. His wavy curls fell in front of his face, the majority of them sandy, but the ones that fell over his face being a dark blue, like the hair of the man who was obviously his father. Gemma smiled, standing and going to the blue eyed child, picking him up, making him beam.

"Alright kiddo, let's go have some fun with Papa," She said, kissing his forehead, pushing his glasses up his nose, and walking to find the man again, "Uff, you're getting too big for me to carry you. I think you definitely got your dad's height for when you're older, not mine."

"Hee-hee, but you have to carry me Mama!" Ethan whined, kissing her cheek. Gem's face lit up, and she held her son closer, "Love ya mama."

"I love you too kiddo," Gemma smiled, bringing him into the room the man was in. Said man smiled, taking his son from Gemma and holding him close.

"Love me too Ethan?" He asked the seven year old, who gave a huge smile and hugged him tightly.

"'Course I do Papa! Love you!"

"Love you too Kid," The man replied with a smile, kissing his forehead. Ethan grinned, and then scrambled around to his back, holding on tight.

"Piggy Back!"

"Oh he so got that off you," The man laughed, arms under his son's knees. Gem giggled.

"What can I say? I'm a bad influence," She grinned, stealing a quick kiss and trying not to laugh as Ethan made a face. She ruffled his hair, "C'mon, play time."

"Yay!" Ethan giggled, cheering. Gemma and the man both smiled widely at their son and then exchanged a happy look with each other. The boy meant near everything to them, and they were happy to have any time with him they could as a family, even if it was a little as a half hour.

~X~X~X~

**_(Oak Laboratories – Starter Check up Room – Ranch)_**

"You ready to watch daddy check over the cute baby Pokémon, Karyn?" Another familiar face asked a roughly year old baby in her arms. The little girl giggled and nodded, clapping together her small hands to show her approval, and then grabbing at her mother's nose. Indigo giggled, brushing some of the baby's growing ginger hair into her face, making her scrunch up her nose as it tickled it, then trying to blow it away, giving up with that approach rather quickly as she soon just pushed it away from her face with her hand, sneezing cutely, making Indigo laughed as she pushed her still dyed light blonde hair out of her own face.

"Here they are, we'll start with the Kanto starters," Jaspa said with a smile as he walked into the room, kissing both of them on the forehead, which caused the baby girl to clap again. Jaspa let out a proper laugh, something we are not currently too familiar with from the point SR is at. He grabbed the three needed Poké Balls, placing them on a metal table and then getting out three bowls filled with type specific Pokémon food to give to them. After doing so, he grabbed the Poké Balls and released the three Pokémon one by one. Bulbasaur popped out first, followed by Charmander and then Squirtle. Karyn's little hands clapped again once the water type came out.

"Heh, she likes Squirtle!" Another young girl's voice said, a child of no older than three walking in with a huge grin on her face, her hair ginger like the young baby's, eyes golden like Jaspa's. Indigo smiled.

"Yep, she sure does Annette. You wanna sit up on the table whilst Daddy checks the baby Pokémon?" She asked the elder of the two children, Annette. Annette grinned with a nod, looking to her dad and holding her arms up. Jaspa chuckled, picking her up and sitting her on the edge of the table, her legs swinging. "There you go Nettie."

"Uh! Uh! Si…ssy!" Karyn said, holding her arms out for her older sister.

"Can I hold her?" Annette asked, looking up with puppy dog eyes and a pout. Indigo smiled, carefully handing the one year old over to her, knowing that she'd manage whilst sitting, "Yay!"

"Yay!" Karyn mimicked, giggling, hugging her sister around her torso. Annette giggled and held her close, kissing her forehead with a big smile.

"Squirt? Tle?" The baby Squirtle said, confused. Karyn beamed, looking over at the Pokémon. The turtle's head was tilted, confused look on face.

"Cu…te!" Karyn giggled, clapping more and gently patting the Pokémon's head. Annette smiled, playing with her little sister's hair, humming happily to herself and grinning more as Karyn bopped to the humming.

Indigo smiled softly and leant against Jaspa's side as the two girls happily watched and played with the Pokémon, smiling as Jaspa gave her a kiss on the cheek, one on the neck and a playful nip with his fangs, something she had gotten plenty accustomed to by now. He was able to resist her blood unless he was really thirsty now, after nine years of practice. Indigo slightly leant closer so his fangs dug slightly deeper, drawing some blood which he chuckled and licked off.

"I can't wait to be ten years old!" Annette grinned. Jaspa and Indigo continued to smile as she said this, knowing how much she wanted to be a Pokémon trainer, but inside they weren't so eagerly awaiting her tenth. They were not sure whether she and Karyn would have the same troubles that Jaspa and Nevee had, after all… so far it was unknown for someone like them to have children, especially with someone who is not also a half-vampire. Nevee, who had worried the same thing about her son, had asked their parents to try and research it via some mysterious Volturi records they had delivered to them (well, not so mysterious when everyone easily figured out whom had given them to them, it's not hard to guess). For now, they could only wait.

~X~X~X~

**_(Pallet Town Park – Centre of Town – Play Park)_**

A small child's giggling was heard along with lots of little clapping sounds from the children's play area in the Pallet Town Park, as well as the creaking of metal as a swing moved back and forth. Over at the aforementioned swing, we can see a familiar young woman sitting on one of the older children's swings with a baby held on her lap, one strong arm around the little boy and the other easily keeping them balanced on the swing by holding the chain. The woman looked more mature than we have probably ever seen her, despite the childish look on her face, wearing surprisingly simple clothes and with a simple hair cut, but the light in her eyes and huge grin on her freckled face gave away who it was.

Behind her a familiar man was pushing the swing whenever it came back to him, smiling as his wife and son giggled, his son especially. The little baby's own green eyes were shining brightly and happily, his messy dark brunette hair flying into new arrangements with every swing up or back.

"Yay high!" He beamed, gesturing toward the sky. TJ laughed lightly and pushed them higher, knowing that Nevee could easily hold on no matter how high he sent them. Nevee was still childish and was enjoying the ride just as much as her young son, also no older than a year old.

"You like being on the swing Jayden?" She asked him as they went up, receiving a huge grin with dimples as an answer. He didn't speak a lot, not directly anyway, when he was playing he's spurt out all sorts of random strings of unrelated words, but when communicating directly he liked to use expressions and gestures more than he did words. Nevee found it cute.

"You two wanna go even higher?" TJ asked from behind them, smiling and giving a small blush – a habit that somehow even after all this time he'd not gotten out of – as Nevee's quick reflexes allowed her to give him a peck on the lips, upside down, on the swing back toward him.

"I'd say he does, yep!" Nevee giggled. The quirky man smiled.

"Do _you _want to? You don't like heights that much, remember," He reminded her. Nevee shrugged.

"It's not like I'll really be hurt if I fell, and that's what I hate about heights, so it's okay!" The half-vampire said, trademark grin never leaving her face. TJ smiled, nodding and pushing the swing higher. Jayden let out happy squeals and clapped more; eyes lit up.

"I love you two," TJ said, brushing some of his still floppy hair from his eyes, continuing to push the swing.

"I love you toooooo TJ!" Nevee replied with a light giggle, smiling cutely at him which made him go pink yet again, "Aw~"

"Yay Mama wuv Papa!" Jayden giggled cutely, clapping clumsily again, squirming happily on his mother's lap. Slowly TJ allowed the swing to come to a stop, then lifting Nevee up a bit he sat down on it with both of them, Nevee on his lap, smiling, "Yay!"

"And we both love you too Jay," He said, kissing Nevee's cheek then leaning down past her to kiss his young son's forehead. Jayden grinned more, giggling. Nevee stood off the swing and lead him to a bench, sitting on it with TJ next to her. She passed their one year old son to him, smiling as they began to play, and rested her head against his shoulder; lips against his neck. TJ knew the signal and gave a small nod, continuing to play with Jayden as he was plenty used to the feeling that was to come and could act normal when it happened. Nevee sighed, she didn't like feeding off him or her other friends, but when her needs called…

Slowly she pierced his neck with her fangs, slowly taking in just enough of his blood to satisfy her thirst, she always took the bare minimum, and then licked the wounds caused by the bite, cleaning them and then slowly healing them up so there was no trace of the bite left. TJ smiled softly at her, his way of always assuring her it hadn't hurt a bit, and then continued to play games with Jayden. Nevee smiled softly, his reassuring always helped, and slowly she relaxed again and began to join in with the game.

~X~X~X~

**_(Ashmore Residence – 8:29am)_**

Gem sighed, standing in front of the man, knowing Scarlet and Auberon would be there any minute with the kids to look after them, and one of the few days she got around him would be ended abruptly. He sighed too, and tilted her head so she was looking at him, kissing her nose, making her give a light giggle.

"Come on, we'll get more time together soon, I promise. I'll try and come over some time when Ethan's asleep, give us some time alone…" He said, looking her in the eye, blue eyes meeting red. Gem smiled and pecked his lips, putting a hand against his cheek.

"That'd be nice… Make sure you manage that Nathen… surprise me maybe," Gemma said, giggling and wrapping her other arm around his neck, allowing him to lift her slightly off the floor again, pressing his lips to hers in a soft kiss, chuckling into it. Gem kissed back with a smile, stroking his cheek, then pulling back after a long moment, "I love you."

Nathen smiled, holding her close as she wrapped her arms tightly around his torso, head against his chest, "I love you too… I'll be back soon…"

"You better be…" She leant up and stole one more kiss, before Nathen placed her down on her feet, kissed her forehead, then disappeared in an instant. Gemma sighed, walking back down to the main room and smiling seeing that her son was playing happily with his young Embolf pup, who she and Nathen had given him on his fifth birthday, just like she herself had received her own Embolf. It didn't hurt so much to think about that now, she was just glad that her son was happy.

Leaving him to play with his beloved Pokémon she went to her authoress room, upgraded and moved all to one place now she spent hardly any time out of the Pokémon world. It was her home again now, especially as it was here she had once again started a family, no matter how difficult it was to maintain that family with so much time apart. A good five years on the road with a child, and looking after immature teenagers, hadn't been easy either. Oh, or explaining to her two daughters she had already. Life was mad here.

Sighing she sat down in front of one of her monitors, clicking a few things and deciding she may as well check up on the others, see what they were up to considering they must be rather busy if Scarlet called her. She clicked on Nevee and TJ first, zooming in just as Nevee was biting her husband. The authoress was annoyed to see that they weren't really that busy at all and knowing they would gladly look after the two baby girls that Scarlet and Auberon needed looking after. Trying to ignore that, she switched to check on the other pair, Indigo and Jaspa, annoyance growing as she saw they were equally unoccupied, easily able to look after a couple more babies for a day. Growling lightly she shut the monitor down and stood up, clenching fists. She knew it was her job, but god damnit it was just the wrong day for this!

Her growl grew a bit louder as she heard the doorbell ring, and the door open as her son opened it, knowing that it would be Scarlet, Auberon and the 'T twins' as they were known. Gemma walked to the door, struggling to keep her flames from flaring up, and glared at the two young adults as she walked over, a smile on her lips, making the glare creepier. Auberon and Scarlet held back gulps seeing the look on her face.

"You two… you… You could easily have given her to the others; they're not doing anything important!" She barked at them as she reached the door, "I had to cancel important plans after you hung up because I thought I was actually the only one available!"

"Sorry Gem… uh… we just figured they had their hands full and… uh… well we didn't think you'd have anything on and uh… The girls like playing with Ethan! Look!" Scarlet said, panicking a bit and trying to come up with as many excuses as she could, before seeing that Ethan had taken Tamara from Auberon carefully, managing to easily hold the one year old but being cautious, and was playing with her happily as she grabbed at his nose. Tamira was trying to reach for him too. Gem sighed when she saw this, one fist unclenching, "Uh… if your plans were really important, I guess we can ask one of the others…"

"I've cancelled them now, no point in calling to get them back on…" The authoress sighed, fists unclenching fully, "I'll… just have to reschedule… Go; go get the meeting done with… Just call if you'll be delayed… But god damnit, do not ever do this again, got it?"

"Got it…" Auberon said with a small gulp as Scarlet handed Tamira over to Gem, who couldn't suppress a sigh as she again realized she even had to look up to her charges now. They thanked her hastily one more time then walked off quickly to their car again. Gemma sighed one more time then kicked the door shut and locked it with one hand, then leading through to the main room, put Tamira down on the floor where she immediately attempted a backward roll, and Ethan sat down, placing Tamara on his lap as she giggled and clapped, then glanced at her sister and clapped her as she managed half a backward roll.

"You have fun here, okay? I'm just gonna go fix up their room for tonight, and get you some toys to play with, okay?" Gemma said, walking over to the main room's door. Ethan nodded.

"Alright Mommy, come play after though?" Ethan asked. Gemma smiled and nodded, walking out of the room to go and get the required things set up in her spare room. She sighed lightly as she did so, humming to herself. Most of it was done with a simple click of her fingers, spare laying out the two twin's stuff she had also been handed. Then, she just grabbed some of their toys, smiling lightly and walking back toward the room.

~X~X~X~

**_(Pallet Town Park – Town Centre – Play Park)_**

Indigo walked into the park with her two kids, Jaspa still at the lab finishing off some things, she just taking the girls out so they didn't get in his hair for the more scientific stuff. She saw Nevee and TJ playing with little Jayden, and as they looked up she waved at them, letting Annette run off to play with some of the other children on the swings, slides and other equipment. Karyn held her arms out to play with her cousin as Indigo carried her closer to them.

"Hey you two," Indigo greeted.

"Hi Indigo!" Nevee grinned, giggling and putting Jayden down on the floor so that he and Karyn could play. Indigo did the same, knowing the area was well fenced in and they wouldn't be able to wander far anyway, and smiled as Jayden happily hugged her, "Whatcha doing here then?"

"Jas needed a bit of time without the kids in his hair, he has some more important work to do as well, so I decided I may as well bring the girls out to play," Indigo said, "You guys just having a fun day out?"

"Yep, we've been here all morning so far since breakfast, Jay loves playing here," TJ said, arm around Nevee's waist, smiling down at his son as he kept playing with his cousin, "Think Scarlet will magically appear too now?"

"Nah, she and Auberon are at a conference for the League and Contest committee… Ah, speaking of that, I was gonna call and offer to look after the twins… but I bet they'll be gone now… she must've gotten Gem to look after them if we're not and you two aren't," Indigo said, hand on hip, "I would of gladly looked after the two…"

"Well, maybe they just thought we had our hands full, we all have young kids already, Gem's is older," TJ said with a shrug. Karyn was now attempting to wander around, pulling Jayden up to his feet too. They pottered around in a circle a few times, giggling and clapping each other. Karyn plopped back down onto her rear after a moment, Jayden pottering around her once then dropping down too, giggling.

"True, true… well, it's her job to, anyway," Indigo said with a shrug. She scooped up Karyn again, "Wanna sit on the swings kiddo?"

"Yay yes!" Karyn giggled, clapping her hands again. Indigo giggled, then sitting on the swing she sat Karyn on her lap, and making sure she was secure and holding tight, she began to swing a little, nothing too high. Karyn still enjoyed it greatly, letting out sounds of approval and a few happy words.

"If she wants to go higher, I can hold her whilst on there," Nevee offered, "I can hold her easier without falling off the swing."

"If you would, she likes going higher than this," Indigo said with a smile, standing up and giving her little girl over to Nevee, who grinned and sat on the swing, holding Karyn like she had her son, one hand on the chain and one arm around the child. Indigo stood back, then grinned as Annette ran over and asked to be pushed on the 'big girl swing', which Indigo quickly obliged with this, pushing her as she sat on it. Nevee was swinging again, Karyn cheering at how high they were going.

Indigo watched them with a smile, but also couldn't stop the irrational fear she always felt when Nevee held one of the girls. Nevee had always had less control than Jaspa, she had plenty enough still, but she had been known to go crazier quicker without blood, which she rarely accepted unless they could get it from the blood bank from someone she didn't know, and even then it often took her an hour or more to take it. This didn't do wonders for her control.

TJ had seen her concern, and whispered to her, "Don't worry, she fed off me less than a half hour ago."

Indigo let out a small sigh of relief and smiled, giving him a nod to show she had acknowledged what he had told her. She kept pushing her eldest daughter on the swing, and watching happily as her youngest had fun on the swing with Nevee, Jayden sitting in his father's arms and clapping both of his cousins with a huge grin on his face, that could only come from the mixture of two such crazy parents.

~X~X~X~

**_(3 Years Later – Ashmore Residence – Outskirts)_**

"Oh this is madness kiddo, you're already an inch taller than me, you better not grow to your dad's height," Gem said, standing with her son on his tenth birthday, fiddling with the collar of his jacket. He chuckled and pushed her hands off the collar, shaking his head.

"Well, if I do I do, mom. It'd be fun to be taller than you," Ethan said, grinning. Gem pouted.

"So not fair, I don't want to be the smallest one in the family," She whined lightly, "And its shows how fast you're growing up, I can't help but be all stupidly motherly over that. You're ten already, its madness!" The authoress said, throwing her arms up. Ethan laughed a little, and hugged his mother, her hugging him back tightly, "You be bloody careful out there, okay? Monoko… it's not safe…"

"I'll be fine, don't worry… You'll probably check up on me every other hour anyway, knowing you, mom," The boy said, teasing tone in his voice. Gem smiled a bit, ruffling his hair.

"I worry… Monoko is not a good place for you to go, but I can't stop you from seeing your grandparents and going on a journey there…" The authoress sighed, "Just be careful."

"I will be, don't worry. I've got Embolf to protect me, and I've got a decent control over my own fire now… I'll be okay," He assured his overprotective mother, ruffling her hair back, making her pout, and in turn him to laugh, "I… do kinda wish dad was here to see me off on my first journey though…" Ethan then sighed, grabbing his bag off the floor and slinging it onto his back. Gemma let out a silent giggle at this, "Guess it can't be helped… he's busy and stuff…"

"Oh come on son, give me some credit! I'm hardly going to miss my son's 10th birthday am I?" A voice said from behind him. Ethan turned around, and his face lit up when he saw his dad standing behind him, "Heya Ethan."

"Dad! You did come!" Ethan said happily, hugging Nathen tightly. Nathen chuckled, hugging him back, smiling.

"Of course I did Ethan; I wasn't going to miss this kiddo. Alicia couldn't come though, she's too busy with her journey, sorry," The Author said, looking down at Ethan. Ethan just gave a wide smile.

"It's okay… I'm just glad that you're here at least," He said, now letting out a small giggle. Gemma smiled softly, blowing Nathen a kiss, which he smiled and returned; Ethan sweatdropping, "Can't you save that for when I'm gone? Geez, I don't get how you can be so lovey-dovey," He said, sticking his tongue out. Nathen chuckled.

"We don't get to see each other much, you know that. You'll understand when you fall for someone," The author told his son.

"Bleh, I won't fall for anyone. Girls are just friends to me," Ethan protested, sticking his tongue out again and making a face. Both his parents laughed, Gemma walking over to hug him as well as Nathen.

"Whatever you say Ethan," She said, kissing his forehead. The doorbell then rang, and Gem sighed, looking to Nathen.

"I'll go hide upstairs," Nathen said, sighing as well, and then quickly going up the house's staircase to hide in one of the upstairs rooms. Authoress checked he was out of sight, then went to the door and answered it, immediately being shoved out of the way by two four year olds who both ran and hug-attacked Ethan's leg.

"Ethan!" They both exclaimed, giggling. Ethan smiled and ruffled the two's hair. Tamara and Tamira both beamed up at him, Tamira's face covered in mud – no doubt from some mini adventure she'd had on the way there.

"You're going on a huge adventure now aren'tcha?" Tamira asked with a grin.

"Yep," Ethan replied with a grin that was just as large. By the door, Scarlet and Auberon sweatdropped and chuckled at their daughters, Scarlet having a pronounced bump starting to form around her abdomen area.

"Sorry about the suddenness of this, those two insisted on seeing him before he set off today, even after having nearly all day here with him yesterday," Scarlet said, giggling, one arm wrapping around her stomach. Gem waved a hand and smiled.

"It's okay; they're close to him so it's nice they want to see him off. He seems plenty happy too by the looks of it," she said, looking at her son as he knelt to their level and hugged both properly with a smile.

"You sure about where you're sending him?" Auberon asked. Gemma sighed, shaking her head, "Then why still let him go?"

"It's his first journey… and it's a rare chance for him to see his grandparents… I'll check up on him as often as I can too… I can't deny him a journey there, so it may as well be his first one so I don't worry about it coming up in later years when his aura and fire may have awakened more…" The authoress explained.

"I see… well, that does make sense…" Scarlet said.

"Who's ya starter gonna be Ethan?" Tamara asked, making Ethan's smile grow as he whistled for a familiar Pokémon. Bounding from upstairs, Embolf ran, tackling Ethan's back and making him laugh. Upstairs Nathen chuckled silently as he saw the Pokémon running down.

"Who else would it be?" Ethan asked, petting Embolf as he came around to stand between the twins and the ten year old, "I couldn't start with any other starter, Embolf's just the best."

"Yay, hi Embolf!" Tamira grinned, petting the Pokémon. Embolf let out a happy bark and wagged his fiery tail, "He won't be in his Poké Ball, right?"

"'Course he won't be, he's gonna be right by me the whole way," The boy chuckled, petting his Pokémon too; "It'd be lonely without him by me too."

"We could come!" Tamara said, "We could keep you company!"

"I don't think your parents would be happy about that. Don't worry; you can journey with me when you guys are ten, along with our other friends. Okay?" Ethan told them with a chuckle, "Pinkie Promise it?" He then added, holding out both pinkies. The two beamed and both wrapped a pinkie around one of his, "There we go."

"Yay!" The twins chorused.

Scarlet let out a laugh, "Alright you two, I think Ethan needs to finish getting his stuff together now, we should go. You can call him tomorrow to see how he is, okay?" She then said. Tamira whined and Tamara pouted, but the two nodded, and hugging Ethan tightly one more time, before running back to their parents. Auberon scooped up one and Scarlet the other, "Good luck on your journey, Ethan."

"Thanks, Scarlet," Ethan said politely, standing back up straight with Embolf hopping to laze over his shoulder.

"Byyyyye Ethan!" Tamira said with a wave, "Has fun!"

"I will," Ethan smiled, waving back as Tamara joined in. Scarlet and Auberon chuckled before walking out of the house, Gem closing the door behind them after waving, then checking they were gone, she called up to Nathen that he could come back down.

"Those two sure like you," Nathen commented as he walked down.

"Heh, yep, they're sweet," Ethan chuckled, scratching Embolf's ear, "Sooooooo… guess I should be heading out now?"

"Yeah, you better. The boat for Monoko leaves soon, and the next one isn't for a week," Gemma said, kissing his forehead, "Be careful, and do well."

"I'll do my best mom," He said, and then looking at his dad, "One day, I want to be able to match you, dad. I don't even need to beat you, I just want to be strong enough to be equal to you," The boy continued, smiling with a determined look, Embolf letting out a yap of agreement, sounding equally determined.

"High goal, but a good one to keep you striving," Nathen chuckled, "Good luck, son. I'll call you whenever I can too, need any help and you can call me or your mother, okay?"

"Okay, I'll remember that," The new trainer smiled, hugging both of his parents tightly, "I love you both!"

"We love you too Ethan…" Gem smiled, kissing his hair and smiling, doing his jacket up properly with a wink and sticking out her tongue, teasing. Ethan sweatdropped, "Its cold out there," His sweatdrop grew, but so did his smile.

"Oh you…" Nathen said, arm around her as Ethan let them go, and adjusted his bag, then headed for the door.

"To the lab first, right?" He asked them. Both nodded, and then Ethan gave another smile, a nod and a wave, and then ran out of the house and toward the lab atop the hill.

"I can't believe he's ten already…" Gemma sighed, leaning against Nathen's side, "And Alicia's already twelve… Man… I feel old… all my kids are growing up… Hope and Destiny have kids of their own already, and Alicia and Ethan are both on their journeys… I should actually be older than I am now!"

Nathen chuckled, kissing her forehead, "When we've both got more time, when we don't have mere days together over a number a months, we can always expand our little family…"

"We won't have time like that for a long time, you know that?" Gem sighed, nuzzling into his chest, "I'd love to, Nathen… but I can't handle a pregnancy with you only being here twice a month at the most, on top of checking on my charges and Ethan…" Nathen gave a small sigh, but smiled softly, kissing her cheek.

"You're worried about the other risks too, aren't you? Just like with Ethan and Alicia," He said, stroking the other cheek. Gemma sighed, looking down, "I told you before, Existence will not get them, and whatever power they may have we can help them control it, okay?"

"Okay…"

"Good… now come on, let's make the most of the time we've got together, hey?" The taller said, chuckling and pressing a soft kiss to her lips. Gemma smiled into it and wrapped her arms around his neck, allowing him to lift her off the floor again, and kissing back.

~X~X~X~

**_(Six Years Later – Baker-Ketchum Residence – Twins' Room)_**

Asleep all around the room that normally housed just the two people, were all five of the children of the generation we have just seen. Two boys and three girls, the twins lay in their bunk bed; Tamira sprawled everywhere on the top bunk, whilst Tamara was curled up in a neat ball on her side. On the floor around their bed were their three other friends, Karyn, Jayden and Ethan. Tamara, Tamira, Karyn and Jayden were all now ten, as of this very day on which they are soon to wake up to, whilst Ethan was sixteen. Karyn was laid on her back with her arms above her head, ginger hair sprawled above her, the fringe and two strands by the side of her face now dyed the same blonde as her mother's. Jayden's hair was still a mess, and reached the bottom of his ears, changing arrangement with nearly every movement. Ethan's hair was in a small ponytail whilst he slept, to keep it neat, and he still had his chain – a skull on the end of it – around his neck.

They all lay peacefully sleeping for a long time, before the Poké ball shaped alarm clock in the room let out a loud series of annoying beeps. First to stir was Karyn, who groaned lightly in her sleep and opened her eyes, sitting up slowly and sighing, looking for the culprit releasing the annoying noise. Soon after her, Ethan grunted and woke up, sitting and shaking his hair out of the ponytail, catching the tie he used to hold it up, then looking around too, groaning seeing the alarm was out of reach, up on the edge of the top bunk, and began to stand up so he could get it. But before he could, Tamira had knocked it off the bunk's edge, it smashing on the floor, and jumped up, hitting her head on the ceiling but not appearing to care, whole face alight with a huge grin, Ethan sweatdropped.

"Whoop! It's finally our tenth birthday!" She cheered, jumping down from her bunk and landing on the floor with a thump, but on her feet. This quickly woke the remaining two up, Tamara stirring with a sigh, plenty used to her behaviour, letting out a tired giggle as she sat up and rubbed her eyes, brushing her black fringe back, bringing her mostly dark red hair to one side of her head, though it quickly began falling back again. Jayden woke up, and was immediately fully awake and hyper, just as you'd expect from him.

"The day we finally go on our journey…" Tamara said with a softer smile than her twin, but still just as happy.

"For you guys maybe," Ethan chuckled, leaning against the side of the bunk bed. "Though I get how you're feeling… but one thing, Tamira,"

"What?" Tamira asked, looking to Ethan, tilting her head. Ethan gestured to the analogue clock on the wall, raising an eyebrow.

"Did you really have to wake us up at four in the morning when the lab doesn't even open until seven, and our boat to Unova isn't until eight?" He asked with an eyebrow raised, giving a light glare. The others glanced at the clock, and all but Jayden immediately gave Tamira a glare. Tamira laughed nervously.

"Hehe… heh… eh… ooh boy…" She said with a gulp.

This should be fun.

~X~X~X~

**Yay! It's done! Well guys, these are the 4th generation members! Tamira, Tamara, Karyn, Jayden and Ethan! You have no idea how many times this line up has changed, to start with there was a single male child for Auberon and Scarlet, though Jayden has been pretty much the same the whole way through the process, how couldn't he be? *grin* Ethan was the most recent change, heh. Plus ya know what? He's already 5'10" now he's sixteen, Gem/Me? 5' still. My own/her son is that much taller than me… D: Having twins in the main group is also a first, so that'll be interesting to do. Also, there is only going to be one pair within the main group this time! It's too hard to work around the relations now, so more characters are going to be brought in for them.**

**ATTENTION: I badly, badly need all the kids for the OCs from SR! I'm doing some for people, but I can't do everyone's! I've got two to do already for someone, and have had to pass at least one over to someone to help me, and it could be I have three to do instead of two. I need the kids, please! Please! D: So far I have:**

**Crystal x Kite**

**Nathen x Kathryn**

**Christian x Hope (One I had to do myself)**

**Bonnie x Lance (Another I have to do myself)**

**I need the others!**


	2. Episode 2: First Day

**Here we go again, and seriously people... I need your OCs Kids! I can't do all of them! Sure, I guess I can manage without one or two of the pairs kids, but it would be so much better if I did have them! Please *pout***

**Anyway, on with the chapter! **

**Episode 2**** - First Day**

**"Last episode we saw the five trainers that we will be following around during this Generation! Tamira, Tamara, Karyn, Jayden and the _apparently_ 'illegitimate' child of our authoress - at least that's what she's been telling everyone - Ethan, are all ready to set out on a journey around a region our authoress has little experience with: Unova. After an extremely early start to their day, the five are now wide awake and ready to head off for four of them to get their first Pokémon."**

"Geez, how long have you guys all been awake?" Scarlet asked as she walked downstairs, dressing gown on, yawning, "Even I didn't get up earlier than my parents on my tenth."

"Blame Mira, she woke us up at four in the bleeding morning…" Ethan sighed, running a hand through his hair, "Bearing in mind that our plan was to get up at six at the earliest… we were all… well, not courting Jay… ready to punch her…"

"You wouldn't punch me I'm too cute," Tamira said with a grin, before getting shot a glare from the tired three again. Her twin sister looked out of characteristically homicidal, eyes tired, glaring at her twin with lacking enthusiasm even about that. Jayden was bouncing happily around as if he'd had about five cups of ca-… WAIT WAIT WAIT! You… let him have caffeine, didn't you?-!

"…Mira, I am going to murder you…" Karyn groaned, resting her head against her fists. Tamira giggled nervously, curling herself into a defensive ball so that no one could attack her, her hair all flopping over the front of her head, her curling up tighter and tighter by the minute to hide herself. Ethan groaned, leaning back in the arm chair he was in, eyes closing, banging his head back against the back of the chair, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses. Karyn was trying to keep her eyes open, and failing. Guys, if anyone needed the caffeine it was Tamara and Karyn, not freaking Jayden!

"Don't blame us, mom! Blame damn Tamira! She's the prankster who did it!" Ethan called into the sky, sighing, hitting his head harder against the back of the chair. Son, I gathered that, but you should've noticed and stopped her if I'm totally honest… Didn't you notice your own coffee was gone? "We were too tired to notice…" …Alright, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here.

"When's the boat again?" A tired Tamara asked, groggily lifting her head to look at everyone, spare her hiding sister, properly. Scarlet chuckled lightly at all of them, adjusting the tie of her dressing gown and looking at the clock.

"It's at eight. Remember, you need to be at the lab by half seven so you can get all your stuff and make it to the docks on time," She said, looking back at them, "So I'll make the ones of you that need it more coffee, and then it's time for you to head off to be safe, alright?"

"Alright Aunt Scarlet," Ethan said, making up another cup of coffee for himself, sipping at it and taking a seat, relaxing back and sighing softly. Scarlet chuckled, making and handing a couple of cups to Tamara and Karyn, making sure that Jayden didn't get his hands on the caffeine, he had had much too much already.

Of course, they didn't stop him whining loudly about the fact he didn't get any.

~X~X~X~  
><strong><em>(Oak Laboratories – 7:32am)<em>**

"Too… many… stairs…" Tamira whined, panting overdramatically as she climbed up the last steps to the lab, looking exhausted. Behind her followed her twin, who looked equally exhausted, but not slumped over as dramatically as her sister. Karyn was soon after, but she wasn't as tired, being plenty more used to climbing the stairs due to her father working there. Jayden, naturally, looked completely hyper as always, not the slightest bit tired; whilst finally Ethan came up the steps, looking tired but only a little, being older and more physically trained and fit than the others.

Just ahead of them all, someone laughed, standing in the doorway to the lab. Looking up, they saw Jaspa in his Lab coat, arms crossed, looking at them all. Oh my god I am still not used to writing Jaspa laughing. …Yeah he just glared at me.

"You four all ready now?" He said simply, arms unfolding. Almost instantly, Tamira was filled with as much energy as Nevee or her son, and was nodding eagerly.

"Hell yes we are!" Jaspa and the others all sweatdropped, before he shook his head and just gestured to them to come in, Karyn glomping him as he turned his back, making him laugh again as he held her legs up, carrying her inside. The others followed, and were lead to the seating area just inside, whilst Jaspa went off to 'double check' things. …okay, I didn't put those apostrophe's around that. Something is happening I don't know about here people!

"Oh my god big mouth doesn't know something!" Karyn said in mock shock, giggling sweetly after. I'm so glad you have the sweet side of your mom.

"Who the hell could have slipped something past you?" Tamira said. I have no idea if that was sarcastic or not, but I'm going to pretend it isn't, and I have no idea who.

"Oh come on hun, you can't guess at all? It's not that hard, only one other person knows your systems as well as you do," A familiar male voice said as someone else donned in a lab coat entered the room. Oh… my… freaking…

A squeak and small squeal were quickly heard as Authoress dropped into shot, straight down into the arms of the man who had just entered, nearly knocking him off his feet. He laughed, wrapping his arms around her, and holding her tightly after righting himself. Right as he was about to speak again, her lips crashed onto his and he couldn't help but return it. Everyone else just stared blankly, before the man had to gently push Gem away, setting her on her feet, tapping her nose as she giggled happily. Ethan's eyes quickly lit up, confirming who it was.

"DAD!" He cheered happily, running over to him and hugging him tightly. Nathen's arms wrapped tight around his son, holding him close to him, smiling joyfully, ruffling his hair as he rested his head on his shoulder.

"Hey son," He chuckled, slowly removing his arms, ruffling his hair again, making the sixteen year old smile with childish glee. Nathen kissed his forehead, Ethan making a half hearted comment about 'embarrassment', and then just laughed again as he saw the confused looks of all four new trainers, even Jayden, "Well, looks like there's some explaining to do here."

"Who… What…?" Tamira said, eyebrow raised; totally stumped.

"Dad…? I thought you didn't have a dad!" Karyn exclaimed. Ethan scratched the back of his head, laughing nervously. Gem coughed, blushing a little from her enthusiastic greeting, stepping forward.

"Uh… about that… Iwaskindajustsayingthathedidn'!" Gemma spewed quickly, "This is Nathen… your parents know of him because he came from the 'AL' I kept mentioning during their journey… we're married and Ethan is our kid…"

"…Seriously? What the hell is the point in not telling anyone?" Jayden said, falling into a rare serious moment, before being his crazy self again moments later, "But yay crazy reunion moment!" Karyn sweatdropped, mouthing something along the lines of 'How am I related at all to him?'

"Jayden, don't be so rude. And Karyn, don't be mean either," Jaspa said as he walked in, making her mumble a sorry and look down, and Jayden just continue to be Jayden. Gemma looked a bit stunned as Jaspa entered, but Nathen gave her a look to tell her to calm down, and that it was fine. She sighed, but nodded, hugging his side tightly, not wanting to let go, "You all ready to come through and take your Pokémon? Professor Pierce is going to be assisting."

"Uh… sure," Tamara said, shrugging a little, walking through. Tamira took another moment of blinking at the new face before shrugging too, running through to the other room, soon followed by the others. Ethan grinned once more at his dad, and then walked in too.

"You all know the choices, right? Or do you want me to go through them again?" Jaspa said, standing in front of the table of Poké Balls. They all leant against things or stood, and looked at the Professor as Nathen joined him, standing behind four sets, whilst Jaspa was behind another four.

"Go through them again, to make sure. I'm sure Karyn and Tamara will have remembered plenty well, but wouldn't surprise me if the others forgot," Gemma said, prompting a glare of Tamira. Nathen chuckled.

"Alright. Well, for Kanto: Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. Johto: Chikorita, Totodile, and Cyndaquil. Hoenn: Treeko, Mudkip, and Torchic. Sinnoh: Turtwig, Piplup, Chimchar," Jaspa said, gesturing at each Poké Ball.

"Unova's are: Snivy, Oshawott, and Tepig. Pokoh's: Tikamo, Wiskabie, and Nixa. Monoko's: Pegaseed, Merbble, and Embolf," Nathen seemed to subconsciously glance to Gem as he spoke this Pokémon, "And finally Solace: Leafit, Aquagon, and Flamolf."

"You all know who you want to pick?" Jaspa asked once Nathen had finished. Tamira stepped forward immediately.

"I sure do! Treeko, please," She said eagerly. Jaspa chuckled, picking the Poké Ball up, tossing it over to her, her catching it.

"Nicknaming it?"

"Aspen~" She said with a grin, stepping back again, tossing the Poké Ball between her hands. Tamara stepped up next, smiling and asking for Chikorita, and naming it Isis. She was quickly followed by Karyn who chose Squirtle, naming him Ervin, immediately releasing him and hugging him, the Pokémon clearly familiar to her, as he greeted his name instantly. Jayden was last, and as over enthusiastically as ever, he asked for and took Chimchar, naming him Charlie.

"You'll be getting your Poké Dexes in Unova, as I don't have the ones that are compatible for over there. But here are your trainer cards," the half vampire said, handing each child their trainer's licence, which they all put away in their bags, "Your boat is soon, so I guess you should head off."

"Thanks Prof. Strong!" Tamira said, grabbing her twin's hand, and Karyn's, running out with them. Jayden happily followed, but Ethan lingered.

"Will I get to see you again soon…?" He asked his father, looking at him, reverting to a stance that was small and childlike, nervous. Nathen smiled, putting a hand on his son's shoulder, making him look up.

"Of course kiddo. I'll check up on you from time to time, don't worry," The blue haired man said, smiling and chuckling lightly. Ethan beamed, hugging him tightly once more, then running off too to catch up with the others.

"You don't need Nathen at all do you?" Gemma asked quickly, looking to Jaspa. The man simply shook his head, trying not to laugh, and went to get on with some work. Nathen looked to her, smirking just the slightest bit, letting her wrap her arms around his neck, "You have some time to spare for me, right?" She leant her lips close to his, brushing them together slightly, small smirk on her own lips. With his arms wrapping around her waist, he smirked more, holding her tight.

"Of course I do Hun, I always do," He pressed his lips to hers, and they both disappeared.

~X~X~X~  
><strong><em>(Pallet Town Docks – 7:59am – Port 4)<em>**

"Shiiiiiiiiit we're gonna be late!" Tamira yelled as they ran toward the boat port, having given in their tickets at the main entrance, now holding onto a group boarding pass that would allow them on. She and her twin ran side by side, in nearly identical outfits. Both were in a turtle neck shirt, but Tamira's was green whilst Tamara's was white, and both were wearing a t-shirt that slanted off their one shoulder over the top of this, Tamira's green and Tamara's black, a white Poké Ball symbol in the bottom left corner of Tamira's, a black in the bottom left of Tamara's. Tamira wore black, messy, ripped jeans whilst Tamara was in pristine white ones. And finally, Tamira wore worn out old converse sneakers, the sole falling off, whilst Tamara wore green flats. Both wore black and white scarves.

"Tamira calm down! We're nearly there!" Ethan called back, rolling the sleeves of his white dress shirt up, pulling his blue t-shirt down a bit, and revealing the black skull on the front of it fully once the creases were gone. The black jeans, patterned with dark blue tribal patterns, flapped about in the wind, his black boots gripping the floor easily to catch up with the panicking girl, dragging their two female friends behind her. The skull chain around his neck hit him in the face occasionally, making him grunt and sigh.

"Yeah, listen to Ehan!" Karyn said, struggling to keep up, her wrist aching. The ribbons holding back the blonde piece of her hair were threatening to come loose, and her orange sneakers kept catching on the cobbles. She held down her blue, sleeveless turtleneck shirt, trying to temporarily tuck it into her light pink jeans to stop it going everywhere and riding up as it was. Her multicoloured scarf flew about in the wind, barely staying on.

Jayden was just contently running with them, oblivious to the time, messy hair still everywhere. He simply wore a white t-shirt with orange sleeves over a red button up shirt, over a pair of blue jeans. A red and orange scarf blew around his neck, and red sneakers covered his feet.

"Look, there! They're still calling for passengers, and we're practically there, so go on!" Ethan said, pointing, Tamira running straight for it. She skidded to a stop, but her two victims flew ahead of her, landing face first on the floor, making the ticket attendant sweatdrop. Ethan sighed, chuckling, helping them all up to their feet, handing their boarding pass to the attendant, and then gesturing for them to get on, "How do I know you?"

"Ah shuddup Ethan!" Tamira pouted.

~X~X~X~  
><strong><em>(Author Lodgings Bedroom – 8:40am)<em>**

Laying panting lightly in a mess of covers, Gemma played lightly with his hair as he rested his head on her chest, both of them lightly red, but now content, lazily talking to each other, happy in each other's company.

"You're gonna be really busy now, aren't you?" Nathen said, glancing up at her as her fingers worked a braid into his hair, smiling. She nodded.

"Reluctantly, yes. I need to follow these guys, story and all that. You know, the usual," She undid the braid, running her hands through his hair, kissing his forehead, "It should be fun though, it normally is. Interesting bunch of offspring this generation."

"Sure is, and with ours thrown into the mix," He chuckled, kissing her neck softly, making her lean her head back, "Any plots you've got going that you'll let me in on?" The Authoress giggled, tapping his nose, "Take that as a no?"

"Nope, no spoilers. I'll let you know what their occupations are gonna be though," She said, kissing him softly, rubbing the muscles of his shoulders, "Tamira? Take guesses."

"Trainer?"

"Yup, predictable tomboy character, a prankster. She's planning the typical path to a Pokémon Master role," Gem said, making small patterns in the sweat on his shoulder, "Tamara?"

"Coordinator, and… something else, probably," He guessed, smiling more at her, continuing to steal kisses on her neck.

"Dancer is her second one, yep," Gemma giggled, letting out soft noises, "She's like her sister, but less extreme, and more paranoid. Karyn?"

"Researcher, definitely, perhaps with something creative on the side."

"Right again. Inquisitive, intelligent, observant. She likes finding things out, and drawing nature. She also wants to dabble in being a coordinator, but that's secondary," More patterns got traced down his back, "Jayden~?"

"Um… to be honest he could go any way whatsoever," Nathen chuckled, kissing her softly. The authoress giggled.

"True, true. But he's a trainer," She kissed back deeply, rolling him onto his back, keeping their bodies pressed together, nipping gently at his neck, "Mm~ I want more. It's been too long. My body is urging for more."

"You sure?" Nathen chuckled, rolling her back onto her back. Gemma giggled, nodding, arms around.

"Definitely."

~X~X~X~  
><strong><em>(Boat to Unova – Deck – Railings – 9:01am)<em>**

"Phew, here we go then, off to Unova!" Tamira said, sitting down on a chair in the room they would be sharing during the journey, which would take a few days. Well, it wasn't so much sitting down, more like flopping down, "Oh hey! There you are again big mouth!"

"What took so long for you to reappear? I was waiting for some comment on the whole thing that happened when getting to the boat," Karyn said, looking up to the sky. Uh… I was occupied with important business. Jobs and stuff, preparation for when you get to Unova.

"…Mom, you were getting boned by dad…" Ethan said, arms folded, looking up, smirking lightly to himself, pulling a disgusted face soon after. ETHAN MAXWELL ASHMORE-PIERCE YOU WATCH WHAT YOU'RE SAYING! "You're blushing up there aren't you?" …Sh-Shut up!

"Ewwww!" Tamira whined, sticking her tongue out and pulling a face, "Too much information Eth!"

"Anyway… why don't you all get to know your new Pokémon? Karyn already has been, but you guys have had them over an hour and the rest of you haven't even let them out!" Ethan said, still quietly snickering to himself as he sat down. You are so lucky I am not cruel enough to ground you.

"Good idea! Alrighty! C'mon out Aspen!" Tamira said, instantly hopping to stand on the chair and throwing her Poké Ball. The ball flew straight across the room, hitting the wall and falling to the floor, not popping open to release the Pokémon inside as it should, "…Wut?"

"…Okay, either the Pokémon wasn't in there, or you just made the only bad throw in the History of Poké Balls," Ethan said, sweatdropping as he walked over to the Poké Ball, picking it up by the top section, letting it fall down empty, "Looks like it's the empty option. No new world record for bad throws here."

"Ah shuddup Ashmore!" Tamira said, walking over and snatching the Poké Ball back from the significantly taller boy, looking it all over, "Where is she?"

"Knowing big mouth, she probably escaped and is somewhere on this ship, ready to be grabbed by some evil team. Probably the next Generation of Team Rocket," Karyn shrugged, playing with her Pokémon, giggling as the Pokémon she knew well responded to her perfectly, "Mara, Jayden, I'd check yours."

"Charcolf is running around as it is, so I know he's off somewhere. Maybe they went with him?" Ethan suggested, shrugging, as Jayden and Tamara both opened their Poké Balls and got the same result as Tamira, just without the crazy dramatics of throwing it at a wall. Mira threw a glare at the sky.

"Have we seriously gotta go search for them?" She then whined, slumping over. Her twin sighed, grabbing her scarf and pulling her straight, making her make over exaggerated choking noises from having the scarf against her neck tightly.

"Do you want to lose your Pokémon before you've even met it?" The more sensible twin asked her prankster sister, letting the scarf go. She shook her head, but continued to whine, though not slumping again so she didn't get her scarf grabbed.

"But can't Authoress just find them for us?" Tamira pouted childishly, looking up at the sky to drill in the point. No, Tamira, I can't. Well, I can, but that would take the fun out of it, so nah, as far as I'm now concerned, I can't. Technical difficulties. Screens and stuff broken; can only see one group at a time. And am so not losing track of you guys.

"We all know that's a lie," Karyn said, giggling softly. It's not!

"Why? Did you bang up there this time and break them that way?" ETHAN! For god's sake… one more word about your father and I and I swear to god I am actually going to be evil enough to stop you going on this journey! "You know I'm just teasing Mama," Ethan chuckled, "I agree with something Aunt Holly asked. You're like a foot shorter, how d-…" Finish that sentence and die kiddo. "Heh. You're so easy to embarrass Mama."

"Do we even want to know what kind of stuff Ethan is saying?" Jayden asked, looking over. No, Jayden, you don't. Especially not you, "Okay~!"

"Let's go, we have to find these Pokémon because as Karyn said, no doubt there'll be TR on this ship, somewhere," Tamara said, tugging her twin's wrist, "We can't have Isis, Aspen and Charlie getting taken so soon."

"I'll go with Jayden, you girls all go look for the other two," Ethan said, "And mom, do help where you can." I'll consider it. "Thanks." Welcome.

~X~X~X~  
><strong><em>(Deck – Railings – 9:12am)<em>**

"This has to be the most stupid and dangerous way a Team Rocket trio has tried to stowaway onto a ship that has ever been recorded…" A woman with long blonde hair, twisted into a twist in a bobble, groaned as she and a male, along with a Purrloin and Meowth clambered over the railings onto the deck, having been hanging onto them ever since the boat left an hour previous. And for about an hour before that.

"Purrr!" The Purrloin hissed, prompting the Meowth to start speaking too, but in human language, not Pokémon.

"She not happy," He said in a dodgy English voice, gesturing to the other Pokémon.

"You really need to sort out your grammar…" The black haired man mumbled, sighing to himself. The Meowth glared at him.

"Ah shuddup Andrew! Ya not better," It said. Andrew rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to point out he was much more adept with grammar than anyone on their team, let alone the barely legible Pokémon.

"Look, both of you, let's just locate these stupid Ketchum linked kids as we've been told to, and then grab some Pokémon when we get to Unova!" The woman said, giving them all dirty looks, before petting the Purrloin, "Aw, poor kitty didn't like our hiding spot."

"You need to stop pampering that thing, it gets more food than we do sometimes, Aubrey," Andrew said, looking at his partner, rolling his eyes again. Obviously this was going to become a habit of his.

"Oh shut up Drew, it's my Pokémon, I can do what I like," Aubrey said, glaring at him.

"I have told you a million different times, Aubrey, its AN-drew, not damn 'Drew'!" Andrew snapped, glaring back at her, arms folding over his black uniform, now looking a lot sleeker and more military compared to the old team rocket uniforms. The R was smaller, taking up one side of the chest, and they had more pockets and a utility belt to help more with operations.

"Yeah yeah, whatever Drew. C'mon, let's get going!"

"Me god…" Meowth groaned, sighing to himself.

~X~X~X~  
><strong><em>(First level down – North Stair block to Deck – 9:20am)<em>**

"Tree, Treeko Tree!" Aspen said as she powered down the corridor that lead to the stairs, running up half the steps and then back down again, and along the corridor. Isis watched her fellow grass type with a confused look as she continued the cycle of running back and forth, sometimes weaving between trainers' legs when they passed through the corridor.

"Chiko… Rita! Chikochikoooo!" Isis said, warning her every time she passed through a trainer's legs, though Aspen never hit anyone or anything. She also warned her that they should be with their new trainers, but Aspen wasn't having any of it, and just continued to run back and forth at high speeds. The young Chikorita facevined.

"Treeeeeee~! Kokotreeko!" Aspen said as she continued to run, a cheerful expression on her reptilian face. Clearly she loved speed.

"There you are you troublesome Pokémon!" Tamira called as she and the other two girls appeared, running into view from the other staircase that led to the second level below deck. The Treeko squeaked and then ran off, pulling Isis with her by her vine.

"Hey!"

~X~X~X~  
><strong><em>(Third Level down – Middle Stair Block – 9:23am)<em>**

"Char, Charcolf, Char!" Charcolf barked, nudging Charlie in the back to try and direct the Chimchar back to the others. The Chimchar whined, trying to resist the older and stronger Pokémon's insistence, but unable to do so. So, it started bawling giant tears, making the other fire type sigh, "Charcolf…"

"Chim char char Chimchar charrrr!" Charlie sobbed, thin orange arms flailing around as he continues to be pushed along the corridor by the wolf. He complained about something to do with Charcolf's rough fur around its face, or how its flames were somehow hurting it despite typing. Charcolf just sighed, red bands on his stomach and mid-front paws flashing a burning light for a moment as its flames decreased a bit, humouring the whining starter. The white smoky patches around his eyes seemed to move like fumes, though it may be a trick of the light, as his deep red eyes rolled.

"There they are!" Jayden called as he ran down the stairs with Ethan walking just behind him, waving his arms around as he headed for his Pokémon. Charlie looked a bit more scared for a moment, before cheering realising it was his new trainer, and jumping at him. Charcolf looked deadpanned and confused. Hadn't that troublesome chimp not wanted to go back only moment ago? Did it just want the attention?

"Chimchaaaar!" The Pokémon complained, not that Jayden could understand him. As far as I know. God knows with his genes.

"Yay Charlie!" Jayden cheered, hugging his fire type close. I don't think I should have let him have a fire type, he could still burn for all I know, "Heh~ Silly Monkey."

"Charcolf…" Charcolf sighed, shrugging his shoulders as he stood on his hind legs, walking to his trainer, raising his paws in exasperation. Ethan laughed, fed him a treat, tapped his nose and hugged him.

"Thanks for looking after the crazy Pokémon pal, we don't want Jayden freaking out. Find any weird plans laid by mom?" You cheeky little…!

"Char," The wolf said, shaking his head. I'm not that sneaky, you're only on the boat for god's sake! You haven't even seen Team Rocket as Karyn thinks you're going to, so there.

"Better to be safe than sorry with you, Mom," Ethan chuckled, standing back up. Charcolf barked a laugh, and then gestured to the other two, "Right, time to get back to our room. We have a long few days of boating ahead of us. Wonder if the others got the other two escapees." Meh, we'll see next episode, "Episodes? This isn't TV." Ah shuddup I can call 'em what I like! "Love ya Mom." Yeah yeah, I know kiddo. I know. "Smile up there?" Maybe. "You are aren't you?" I'm cutting it there. "What, going to get boned again?" I SAID CUTTING IT THERE!

~X~X~X~

**Ethan, you mischievous little… **

***cough* Anyway, finally a chapter of this, though I think DtF should have been next priority, not this. But whatever, I'm happy with my plans laid out for this now, so ya know~ Some of them are kinda evil, and me and Nate are working on a new team to throw into the pile, so this could be interesting. …Especially since I have never completed the games for Unova, and also have very little knowledge of the region in general because I haven't even seen the series for it yet. Because I happen to be a lazy idiot. So, ya know. Heh.**

**Now, either to DtF or SR…**


	3. Episode 3: The Journey

**Woo, trying to do as many stories as possible now. Fuck yes. I started a bit of this during my time writing SR, before my holiday. I had part of one of the plots I wanted to get from my head onto the computer before the exact plan evaded me. If people haven't noticed, none of the teams in Monoko, Pokoh, or my renditions of the other regions are as comical as in the show spare the customary idiots of Team Rocket. Sure, some of them act stupid, but their intentions are more hostile. That is what we get with Nathen and I working together, to be honest (see Pokoh (joint), Solace (his), and Monoko (mine) for proof there). **

**I have been trying to make the Pokémon world more realistic, with a lot kept the same but giving things like accommodation, supplies, interactions etc. more of a normal style as I can, mostly within Monoko. But I'm going to do the same here. Some Pokémon teams mimic real life organisations, in my mind, and whilst mine don't necessarily do so… Some parts of this new team's methods at least link to the darker side of using Pokémon to fight, and the damage their attacks can do.**

**RANT OVER! Bet that was a case of too long, didn't read. But whatever. Let's go!**

**Episode 3**** – The Journey**

**"Last episode we saw our newest heroes beginning their journey for real as they grabbed their starter Pokémon and headed for the Unova region via boat, a journey that would take them a few days to complete. As a last moment shock, Ethan's father showed himself to the young trainers in an unexpected appearance with Jaspa to hand out the Pokémon, finally ending the speculations – at least amongst the kids, if not the adults. Now, we catch up with them as they wait for their boat to reach Unova in a few days' time."**

"Watch that you don't fall off there, Mira," Ethan said as he walked away from the edge of the boat, Tamira leaning over the edge of the rails, fascinated by the water and the natural life within it, as she always had been. The water was pristine and clear, almost urging her to jump in, and she could see every bit of plant life and Pokémon life under the waves, making her mismatched eyes light up as she watched it. Ethan chuckled at the look in her eyes.

"I know I know, I won't fall. Authoress won't let me," The raven haired girl said, blowing hair from her face. Oh, don't be so sure about that. It's not like your name is in the title like your mom, I could kill you off, "WHAAAT?-!" Geez, take a joke. "You're more immature than me." Nope.

"She has a point," Karyn teased from a little further down the rail, where she was watching her Pokémon swim in the pool not far from them, "Watch your step. We could all be for the chop this time." How cruel do you think I am? "Very." Thanks.

"Don't worry mom, we know you're not too evil. You did get through a whole series without killing off Leaf," Ethan chuckled, walking toward the passageway back to the bedrooms. Where ya going? And good point there. "Off to have a nap." Alright, I'm off to work on some things with your father for your arrival in Unova, see you in about an hour or two. "Not all of that time will be work, and you know it." Shut UP Ethan!

"Looks like her own son is closer to being axed than we are!" Tamira grinned, making Ethan chuckle and stick his tongue out at her. Tamira quickly hid the red that coated her light brown cheeks, looking back at the water again and watching the Pokémon jump around. Signing out. See you later troublemakers.

There almost seemed to be a small audible click as her communication with the group ended, and they all stared at the sky for a moment before shrugging to themselves and going back to their tasks/distractions.

As Ethan headed down to the bedrooms, his Xtransceiver began to buzz. His eyes focused on the blue Unova made item with his Monoko origin PokéOrg attached to it, his eyes widening a bit seeing the name on the screen. Quickly he made his way to the room, knowing Jayden would be running off somewhere with his Pokémon. He slammed the door shut, sat on his bed with Charcolf rubbing his leg looking confused, and clicked 'Accept Call'.

A man with black locks covering his upper face, his eyes totally hidden under the spiky messed up fringe, the rest of the long messy hair held up in a ponytail just above his shoulders, appeared on the screen. His face was clearly covered in horrid scars, but he was smiling an overenthusiastic smile.

"Hey! Ethan!"

"Hey, Corvan… didn't expect a call from you," Ethan said, slight nervousness in his tone, immediately glad that his mother had gone off the communications link, knowing she saw everything and that this would get him in trouble. For the past six years he had been fine doing what he wanted, with only an occasional check in, but with her following him almost constantly now he was in trouble.

"You're in my region pal! Of course I was going to call you! Come on, I'm down in the boiler room waiting for you, with a couple of associates. You in on the Unova scene as much as you were with Monoko and the others?" Corvan said with a huge confident grin that was verging on a smirk. Ethan bit his lip, "Hey! You're a legend man, rarely lose a match and you can heal yourself! What you so scared of? You look hesitant!"

"My mom's watching my every move this journey, Corvan. I only have a few times she's not around, like now. I don't know…" Ethan said, watching the sky out of the corner of his eyes, scared.

"What? Oh come on! All the battles are underground, at night! You're ready for a tournament now you're sixteen, kid! Twenty four competitors, you'd only have to beat eleven dimwits and then one other winner and you'd have complete respect, every region. Winners of region systems get all sorts of privileges. I sure did," The raven haired man, no older than 18, continued, "11 locations, after a test match. Then underground at the Pokémon League."

"…Maybe… if it's at night I may be able to sneak out…" Ethan muttered, blue fringe falling in his face. Charcolf barked, looking up, "I… I'll try."

"Come on! To the boiler room! You're super genetics can manage the heat, right?" The man was smirking more fully now, grin stretching the horrendous scars on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, of course. I'll be down in a few minutes. Let me get myself together first."

"Fine, see you in five."

~X~X~X~

**_(Unova Region – Unknown – 6:01pm)_**

Gemma shivered, a strange shudder going up her spine as she worked on fixing up some form of a bedroom with sleeping supplies, dusting down old pictures and furnishings. Nathen caught it immediately, also working on the room, and looked to her, eyes quizzing his wife for answers.

"It was nothing. Just an eerie feeling, I get it sometimes…" She said with a shrug, putting out new bed sheets, sighing a little looking around the room, "I get it to do with the kids, to do with my charges. But with some of the stuff I have planned for my charges, god knows what could be starting whilst I'm gone."

"It couldn't be about Ethan, could it?" Nathen asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Unlikely. I'm playing favourites, nothing planned for him," Gemma said with a soft smile, kissing his cheek, then sighing looking around the room, "Alicia's old room… god I barely know my own daughter now…" She sighed, looking at the old childish bed sheets in her hands, the ones she had just removed, "She's eighteen… a young adult… I…"

"I know… you get to see her even less than I get to see Ethan… it isn't fair, but…" Nathen brought her into his arms, kissing her head, "She loves you. Looks up to you. Tries to be like you. Remember? I showed you those pictures and stuff, you haven't seen her much at all since her journey started…"

"I miss her… she's my little girl and I never see her… it's not fair… damn Secret Police…" Gemma gripped his shirt, burying her face, "DAMMIT!" She let him go suddenly and punched a wall, denting it. Nathen sighed softly, kissing her head.

"Gem… calm down… you'll see her soon enough. I know you missed a lot of her life but you still love each other…"

"She barely remembers me. She was six when we started having to live apart, we've only seen each other a few times a year for a week or so since… I want our lives to be normal…"

"They will be. As normal as possible with charges and our pasts. I promise, okay?" Nathen made her look at him, hands on the side of her face, "Okay?" She nodded, "I'll get you a visit with her as soon as possible. You can have a good mother daughter time."

"Thank you…"

"No need hun. C'mon, let's finish setting this room up. Then, we can have some us time before doing the rest of the house, okay?" She nodded again, and they set back to work after a quick kiss.

~X~X~X~

**_(Exercise Room – Dance bars – 6:05pm)_**

Tamara held the bar with one hand as she stretched her legs, raising them up and holding her toes, before stretching them out to the side, one by one of course. Then sitting down to do more types of stretches, she watched the only other dancer in the room. How they stretched with such ease, how they moved their legs and twisted so perfectly with what seemed to be so little effort. The dancer smiled at her, waving as she caught her watching, her Pokémon partner peeping from behind her leg. Tamara smiled back shyly, waving a hand and standing up.

Trying to mimic the effortless performance of the other dancer, she stretched her legs again, then standing on the very tips of her toes she did a spin, lifting one leg into the air, before suddenly her leg muscles completely gave out on her, resulting in her crashing to the floor. The other dancing girl rushed over, kneeling beside her.

"Are you alright?" She asked quickly, helping her sit up.

"Y… Yeah I'm fine… guessing I'm not that good with boats…" Tamara said, scratching the back of her head, trying to convince herself that was it. She'd been finding it difficult recently, to dance and move as normal, to do anything past the basics. She passed it off to herself and others as various different things, from simply tiredness to doing too much the previous day. She wouldn't let herself wonder what it really was.

"You sure? You took quite a tumble," Her fellow dancer continued, even her Pokémon worried. Tamara quickly stood up, nodding.

"Just a small fall from dizziness. I'm fine, really," She said, almost sounding a bit panicked. The other dancer was confused, but smiled softly, nodding and getting up, walking back to the changing room. Tamara sighed, looking at herself in the mirror, rubbing her legs, "What's going on with me…?"

"Hey sis!"

Tamara jumped as Mira walked into the room, trainers still on, wet from getting splashed by spray when she nearly fell over the edge not long ago.

"Mira! Don't ruin the flooring, step off!" Tamara said quickly, making her sister sweatdrop as she raised her hands flat facing her in a defensive move, moving a step back to the carpet flooring at the edge of the dance area, "Heh… sorry!"

"Meh, its fine. I know what you're like about your dancing," Tamira giggled, hand on her hip, "You're not staying here all day though are ya?"

"No… I think I'm done…" Tamara said, sighing a little as she stepped off the dance floor and walked into the changing room. Tamira followed her, and though Tamara let her at first she soon glared at her when she wanted to get changed.

"God Mira, we're the same person basically! Geez you're prudish," Tamira whined, before sighing at the continued glare as she turned away from her sister, arms folded. Tamara changed back into her normal clothes, and packed her dance kit in her bag as she slung it over a shoulder, then tapped Tamira's shoulder. She turned around with a huge grin, grabbed her twin's arm and then dragged her, "Come on! Canteen and then we're hunting down the others!"

"Fine…" Tamara pouted, wrenching her arm from her sister's grip as she walked up level to her, "Big Mouth gone to do something?"

"Yep. Some sort of preparation for arriving in Unova or something," Tamira said, shrugging, "God knows what it is. Ethan thinks it's more likely she's gone off to do nasty things with his dad."

"Ew. Not something we wanna know about Authoress."

"'Sactly."

"Now come on, let's go back to the others… we may as well get some food," Tamara sighed, shaking her head to get rid of the thought.

"I ate already."

"But knowing us, you're still hungry anyway."

"You know it twin. Come on!"

Tamara couldn't help but laugh as she and her sister linked arms – they had a lot of differences but in many ways they were the same person.

~X~X~X~

**(Karyn – girl's room – 8:00pm)**

Karyn hummed to herself as she painted the view outside her porthole window, a small glass of water nearby as her watercolours danced over the page and dipped into the slowly tinting liquid as her art took form. She sung an old legend song, one that Authoress used to sing to her and the other kids when they were occasionally in her babysitting care for a few days. She memorised these things easily, and had a longer memory than the others in the group which let her remember these small things from their younger years.

After her skilled hands finished the watercolour image of the sight outside, she smiled and put it somewhere safe to dry properly before it would be put in her bag later. Putting away all her materials and tools, she stood on a chair and looked out of the highest porthole in the room, smiling cheerfully at the view of the water and the Pokémon jumping out of it. Her Squirtle, Ervin, rolled around on her bed in the girls' room happily, comfortable with his trainer due to many years knowing her. He did, however, jump when Isis and Aspen suddenly jumped onto the bed with him and spun him around once playfully, making him let out an exclamation of his name.

Karyn turned around hearing him, and smiled at the twins as they entered the room, "Hey troublesome T's, how've you two been today?"

"I've been exploring and my legs hurt and I'm soaked, but I'm good!" Tamira said with a grin, jumping onto her bed and bouncing on it. The springs shrieked in protest, but she continued to bounce on the bed like the child she was.

"I've been dancing, so I'm happy," Tamara smiled, sitting on her bed and patting her lap, her Chikorita hopping up and curling up on her legs, nuzzling her abdomen and smiling with a coo of its name as she began to pet her.

"I've been painting," Karyn giggled as she sat down, swinging her legs, "The boys off alone messing around, I'm guessing?"

"Well your cousin is somewhere with his Pokémon, I'm just hoping Authoress can reel him in when she gets back. Not sure about Ethan, knowing him he's either training or sleeping." Both of the twins said, both leaning back on their hands a bit at the same time.

"You two are weird when you do that." Karyn giggled, rubbing her Pokémon's shell. He almost purred his call as she did so, nuzzling his trainer.

"Wonder what Unova's going to be like," Tamara said with a giggle, tapping her fingers against the bed, "It's apparently rather different to other regions. It used to be even more so, until lots of other Pokémon from everywhere else starting populating it as well as its unique ones."

"No doubt it'll be interesting," Karyn said.

"Of course! Heh, maybe we'll finally find Karyn's first crush," Tamira said, teasing in her tone as she winked at the ginger girl, who quickly blushed. Her arms waved around in front of her face in protest, and in a bad attempt to distract attention from her deep red cheeks.

"Just because you two have giant crushes on one of our best friends at ten years old doesn't mean I'm going to start falling in love at ten!" The researcher whined, hiding her face properly in her hands as she tried to cover her bright blush that showed up well under her pale skin.

"Hehe, you're easy to wind up," Tamira giggled, poking her friend's forehead before lying back on her bed, "I am going to take a nice, long nap."

"If you don't fall out of bed from the waves," Tamara said, "Again."

"That was years ago!" Tamira whined, throwing a pillow at her sister, who dodged allowing it to fly into Karyn. The mischievous twin squeaked, trying not to laugh as she covered her mouth and Karyn deadpanned for a moment before grabbing the pillow.

"Oh now you're so dead," The researcher smirked, throwing the pillow back and allowing all hell to break loose.

~X~X~X~

**_(Boiler Room – Earlier – 6:09pm)_**

"Hey, Ethan! There you are mate!" Corvan's gravelly voice called as Ethan walked into the room, Charcolf standing beside him on his back paws. Ethan observed the man as he walked over, nothing had changed from the last time he saw him. The man still towered over Ethan, reaching 6'6" – a whole five inches taller than his father, and a good seven inches over him – and he was still covered in scars that were visible on any exposed skin, as well as the rippling muscles that pushed the scars in a way that they stretched horribly. His leather jacket was torn in various places, the back decorated with a pair of torn devil wings – the material stained with dried in blood that he refused to wash out. The same could be said for his leather pants, and his heavy, steel toed, studded boots.

"Hey," Ethan said with a casual wave, walking over to him. His heavily scarred Zoroark snorted at the approaching trainer and the smaller canine Pokémon, arms folded over a particularly bad scar on his chest, "This going to be quick?"

"Of course. Just need to tell you the time and place of your entrance battle. If you don't make it to it, we'll take it as you're unable to participate. No need to contact in advance," Corvan said, flipping a small card out to him, "There are two options, actually."

Ethan took the small card, looking at it. The first option simply said: _Nuvema Town, 1am the night you arrive in Unova._ The bottom option was even more simply put, all it said was: _Now_.

Ethan's eyes widened, looking up at Corvan and the two officials. His eyes said 'seriously?', and the lack of verbal response gave him his answer. He knew which answer they wanted.

"Fine…" Ethan said with a hidden sigh, "Not to the actual death right?"  
>"Of course not, it's just a test battle. You may get a little beaten up, but with your skill it'll be minimal," Corvan said, waving a dismissive hand, "Choose your Pokémon. You'll fight one of these two."<p>

"Lucario, you're up," Ethan said simply, throwing his Poké ball and letting out the Aura Pokémon. Lucario glared at Zarek – the Zoroark – before getting ready to face his opponent.

One of the officials stepped forward, and let out an Escavalier. Corvan placed a box on the floor right between the two of them, pressing a button and stepping back as a make shift battlefield formed. Blue lines formed the basic floor set up, and projected blue cages formed around the two trainers. Ethan knew the set up well, though normally he was in a proper location with a proper cage. These cages could be just as deadly in the right circumstances, however.

"Let's do this…" Ethan muttered to himself. There was no backing out now. As Corvan said, the only way he could have gotten out of the half formed agreement would have been to not turn up to the battle, but he walked right into it without even realising. He had no choice but to fight and hope he won.

**_(Boy's Bedroom – Present – 8:05pm)_**

"Th-That fucking stung…" Ethan cursed under his breath, shirt off as he let his aura heal the large X shaped cut across his chest, applying anti-scarring medicine as it healed quickly, determined to get rid of any sign of it. His body was already littered in scars, but there could be passed off as other things. A large X across his chest could not be associated with any accident that would seem plausible.

_"I'm sorry Master. I should have been able to avoid that attack_." His Lucario spoke to him via his aura, bowing his head. Ethan sighed, shaking his head with a soft smile.

"You did well, Lucario… you took only this attack and one other, and dealt out a good few. We won, and we're fine. So don't worry. It's just one more scar," The teen said, finishing the treatment of the wound as it near completely disappeared, "There. Done."

He heard thuds coming from the wall of the room that linked to the girls' room as he pulled his shirt back on, and raised an eyebrow at the noises. Deciding to investigate, he adjusted his shirt, put away the medical kit, and walked out to the corridor, knocking there door but receiving no response. Feeling the doorknob and realising it was open, he entered the room and was immediately hit in the face by a pillow.

The girls all gasped, but burst out laughing immediately after, feathers everywhere and the pillows destroyed. Ethan just stood there, mouth open as if to speak, when all four heard a click as Authoress came back onto the communications link.

I'm ba-… Okay, what the hell happened here? Oh and where the hell is Jayden?

"…Oops?" Tamira said after a moment of silence from the quartet, making Authoress audibly facepalm in her room above.

~X~X~X~

**I actually hit my limit for my update I think, going by the last update time for this. I'm missing the limit of three months by one day, how about that? *sweatdrop* I'm aiming for one story update a month at least now, going through the schedule of the three one by one, only editing order if I get a really good idea. But my actual novel writing may get in the way; a lot of the delay on this one was caused by that. Sorry! D: I'm trying my best, I promise! **

**I'm rather happy with this, I've addressed some new plots that will happen, and accidentally ignored Jayden – but he'll get something next chapter. I'm sorry if this story ends up with a lot of NathenxGemma (…It's sad but I want a shipping name for that…) but they do have a plot themselves, and they link to Ethan's and stuff… so, yeah. That's my excuse. And I love the couple too much.**

**R&R! Next up, Doors to Freedom!**


	4. Episode 4: Unova

**Back again, sorry for the constant delays. I've gotten so lazy, guess Christmas enhanced that. I've also got into a bad habit of all-nighters over the Christmas holidays, and whilst by the time this is up I'll likely have stopped them, they're likely to have affected my system. It feels like last year all over again.**

**And as this will likely be posted in the New Year: I have had both the best and worst year of my life so far this year. From stronger bonds with my three oldest friends, to losing something I had been borderline dependent on earlier this year, to fights I've had with each of my three oldest friends, nearly losing each of them also… to stress at school, grades, tests, novel attempts, more fights and more incidents, broken hearts I've had to deal with including my own, and some of my friends' rampant love lives… it's been insane. But at the same time, my best friends have gotten me through it despite the tiffs with them, and so has my art and my writing… this site has been a staple in my life for four years now, and I wouldn't have it any other way. **

**Episode 4 – Unova**

**"Last episode, everyone adjusted to the boat as they travelled towards the region of Unova to start their Pokémon Journey. Authoress naturally made the mistake of leaving them alone for an extended period of time, resulting in a missing Strong, a pillow fight, and god knows what else. We join them at the end of the boat journey, however, as the ship takes its time docking…"**

"Damn thing is so slow!" Tamira whined, stamping her feet impatiently like a spoiled toddler. She glared at the sky for a moment, before remembering where Authoress currently was and glaring across at her instead. Gem rolled her eyes, currently holding Jayden by the back of his shirt to keep him from running off again, as someone – and I think we all know who – made the mistake of giving him coffee and sweets at the same time. This said person got death glares that would make even the strongest Pokémon quake for doing so.

"I cannot be blamed for the boat, and you are acting like a spoiled toddler right now. I should know, I used to be one," Gemma said, rolling her eyes yet again, "You also have no right to complain. God you're as bad as me before I turned five! Pranking and torturing people around you by pulling stunts like you did with Jayden today, and having tantrums!"

Tamira blushed, and Tamara struggled not to burst into laughter.

"We're nearly docked now. Now, I'm going to lead you to where we're staying, alright? You don't stray off to explore yet, we have all day tomorrow for that." Gemma continued, giving them all a look, "That mostly applies to Jayden and Tamira."

"I hate you." Tamira said with a scowl.

"Tell me something I don't know, girl. Tell me something I don't know."

There was a moment of silence, before Ethan spoke: "I'm actually surprised that there's no little song this time around, I watched back the old 'series' and that would normally have been a point for a theme."

"Yeah I know, but I couldn't think of anything this time," Gemma said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well you're uncreative and stupi-waaaa!" Tamira began to speak before, a good two minutes before docking should have completed, they hit the dock with a thud and she fell onto her backside mid-sentence. Gemma smirked to herself.

~X~X~X~

**_(Port – As the boat prematurely Docks)_**

"Oh that was so her up to her usual antics wasn't it?" A female voice said, coming from a girl no taller than Gem who was dressed in a heavy black hoody with the hood up, hiding her face and hair, whilst a pair of tight black jeans with white roses on the leg showed underneath along with a pair of tight black boots.

"Oh definitely. Someone's annoyed her, likely one of the twins," Nathen laughed next to the girl, arm over her shoulders, "Keep that hood up until back at the house, okay?"

"I knooooooow," The girl said, sounding as if she were rolling her eyes.

"…She just jumped off the boat didn't she?" The Author then said, eyes locking onto a small figure at the base of the docked boat, right next to where the stairs hit the floor from the top deck, and the bottom deck opened out too.

"Yes, she totally did."

"Oh yay you managed to meet us!" Gemma grinned, running over just as the others slowly made the descent down the stairs from the top deck, Jayden now being held back by Ethan instead as Gemma had already vacated the deck via her huge jump.

"Have you been getting lessons off Holly? I don't remember Embolf being able to jump that far and not break their legs," Nathen said with a smile as he hugged her, lifting her around onto his back as she clung on.

"Maybe I've just been training. Hey, who's this?" She poked the girl's head, making her jump and squirm a little, burying her hands in her pocket.

"New hand for the production team back in my storyverse." Nathen said, shrugging, "She's shy, don't be touchy-feely."

"No idea why I am, I never am. A moment ago I was pissed! I don't know myself anymore!" Gemma grinned, "You've drove me mad."

"Oh you were already mad," Nathen teased. The girl struggled not to giggle, barely containing herself as she simply watched the group walk over to them, Ethan shaking his head and rolling his eyes at his parents whilst the twins playfully poked fun at him about how they were even more embarrassing than their own parents. Jayden was whining at being restrained, but walking obediently along with them, despite a lot of twitching from the caffeine.

"Okay guys, we're going to our base now, okay? And I say base because if I ever need to talk to any of you truly alone, or if there's anything that means we need a hideout, then we're teleporting back to it. Got it?" The Authoress said, back to as serious as she could make herself act as Nathen tried to make her laugh by tickling under her knees.

"We got it Authoress," Karyn said, adjusting her bag on her back, wiping her face which had a few paint splashes on it from when she was painting out on deck during one day of the trip.

"I'll be leading the way. The layout of the town has changed so we have to pass through some different streets than your authoress knows, and boss here wants to walk with you all, so I'll walk ahead. Just follow me," The girl said, pulling her hands from her pocket and gesturing to one of two paths from the dock, "This way."

As everyone started following, Tamira and Tamara continued their jokes about Ethan's parents as they started to mess around with Ethan like he was five again, as well as playing up on purpose to embarrass him further. Nathen pushed in a few cheeky comments about how he hadn't had enough time to tease and embarrass him as a teenager in the past few years, so he was going to do it now in front of his friends. Ethan was bright red, and the girl still appeared to be trying not to laugh.

But as the long walk continued, Ethan was wondering about the girl up front and trying to zone out his parents. She looked familiar even with her hoody on, and he was beginning to wonder if this was just another surprise. He pushed these thoughts away for now and just focused on ignoring his parents completely and only giving generic responses. He barely even registered when they got to the house, but his eyes widened when he realised, staring up at the large home and nearly squealing like a child.

"H-Home…!" He gasped, grin forming on his face as he shook a little, before immediately hugging his parents, "W-We haven't been here since I was so young! Wh-When… what… h-how is it still so-so well k-kept!?"

"It wasn't when we got here, but we set it all up. Well, I did, then the past couple of days we did a couple of last minute sessions to finish up," Nathen smiled, hugging his son, "I figured as you were coming over here, you may as well get to have a day or two in your babyhood home."

"Wait, you used to _live_ here?" Tamara gasped, looking up at the large home, "B-But this thing is freaking huge! How damn rich are you?!"

"I had some money saved up, I wanted the best for my family," Nathen said casually with a shrug, "It was pretty much off radar to the people after us at the time… but eventually we got a few break ins by them… totally fixed the security now though," He continued, waving a dismissive hand along with another shrug, "We've set up a few old rooms. The twins will be in one room, Karyn you'll be sharing with my charge, Jayden you have your own room, Ethan you're in your old room, your Pokémon can all either stay in a big group room or out on Gemma's old Pokémon ranch, and we'll be sharing our old room."

"Ew, you're going to be doing the nasty again," Ethan said childishly, making a disgusted face.

"Oh here's a much grosser thought for you bro-bro, you were conceived in that very room," The girl in the hoody then suddenly said, making two sets of eyes in the room widen, and the rest of the pre-teens confused.

"Not more random surprises," Tamira whined, Jayden just looking clueless as he generally was, but still smiling happily.

"S-Sis?!" Ethan nearly squealed, part of him mentally cursing himself for the childish and slightly girlish joy and noise that his reaction had taken form as, watching as the girl tugged her hoody off to reveal long dark red hair that slowly faded into a lighter red shade at the tips, which she messily pulled from a bun and shoved into a scruffy ponytail, rolling up the sleeves of her black and white striped shirt lazily, and then holding her arms wide.

"Give your big sis a hug," She beamed, making grabbing motions with her hands. Ethan broke into a laugh, hugging her and lifting her off the ground, standing nearly a foot over her.

"More like little!"

"You have _two_ kids?!" Tamara said, eyes wide looking at Gemma. She didn't even respond, just suddenly grabbing her daughter in a crushing hug as she burst into sobs into her hair, clinging to her like her life depended on it and the girl doing the same.

"A-Alicia…! Oh god…! M-My baby girl oh my god…!" She whimpered, shaking. Alicia looked like she was trying not to cry too, yellow eyes inherited from the genes kept from one of Gem's old forms shimmering as they filled with tears.

"I-I'm eighteen mom…" She said.

"They're gonna flood the room," Tamira said, rolling her eyes.

"I-I don't care… you're still my little baby… a-and still you're an inch taller! I-I can't win!" Gem laughed through the tears, clinging on tighter.

"I missed you…"

There was a long silence in the room, then:

"Um, anyone gonna show us around?" Tamira said, still clearly lacking her ability to care when to do with the authoress, waving a hand with the other on her hip. Nathen rolled his eyes, muttering something about 'Gem always gets one like that' and then shrugging.

"I will, but I'll be being quick. It's not that hard to find your way around. We also have a pool out back and an old games room if you need something to do," He said.

"A pool? Hell yes!" Tamira cheered, Karyn grinning happily next to her due to her own love of swimming. "Come on old man show us around!"

"…Do not push your luck, kid. I'm under no obligation not to hurt you you know," Nathen said, giving her a strict stare as he walked past them, waving a hand forward, "Come on trainers. Follow me."

"…Scary…" Tamira muttered, hiding behind her sister as they followed him.

Ethan joined the hug with his two female relatives, easily able to hug the two petite women in his broader arms, an arm around each of their backs and head on theirs, smiling gently as they were reunited, but smile faltering just a little as he saw Alicia look up at him, and give him a very stern look.

She knew.

~X~X~X~

**_(End of the tour – 1:01pm)_**

"There, that's all the areas you're allowed to go to, got that? Don't go anywhere I haven't showed you, or the areas I told you not to enter such as my study," Nathen said, arms folded over his chest looking at the group, giving Tamira the most pointed look. "You're welcome to go set up in your rooms or use any of the entertainment rooms."

"I am so going out to swim!" Tamira said as she ran off to the room she and her sister would be sharing, taking her bag off her shoulders as she did so. Karyn smiled, thanking Nathen as she went off to Alicia's old room which she'd be sharing with her, planning to gather her art supplies and then go and paint outside. Jayden ran off to do god knows what, whilst Tamara looked up to Nathen.

"Um… is there anywhere I can practice dancing at some point? I'm probably going to go swim for now, but…" She asked, twiddling her fingers around each other. The man chuckled.

"Of course. We don't have an area, but I can have one set up easily. It'll be ready in about an hour, alright kid?" He said, ruffling her hair, making her giggle a little.

"Right. Thanks, sir," She said with a smile.

"No need for the formalities. Just call me Nathen, alright? You're all my son's friends so you don't need to be calling me 'sir'," He said, chuckling and then walking off. Tamara skipped off back to her and her sister's room to get ready for swimming.

"Here we go!" Tamira said, hopping out of the room in a dark green one piece, with red stripes down the sides and for the straps which tie around neck, "Time to swim! Hurry up sis!"

"I was asking about dancing, sorry," Tamara said, walking into the room and changing quickly, into a dark green two piece: a bikini top with ribbons tying it and on the sides, and a skirt/short bottom, the skirt black and the short part dark green.

"Come on now though!" Tamira said, grinning and grabbing her hand and pulling her through the house down towards the pool. Their Pokémon were already running wild after being let loose during the tour, either near the empty rooms set up for them or by the ranch, and some were hanging around at the pool now. The fire types naturally stayed back: Charlie, Charcolf and nearly the whole of Alicia's team included. Her Embolf and Flamolf were both seemingly being taught by Ethan's Charcolf, who due to his evolution was naturally a higher level than the two first forms. Her Flareon was playing with Charlie as the young Chimchar laughed and played silly pranks and jokes that didn't really work but Flareon acted shocked anyway. Blaziken simply sat in a tree, watching all of the Pokémon below him, especially keeping his eye on a young Zorua from her team.

By the pool, where Ervin was swimming around happily, Ethan's Lucario was sat down next to an oddly coloured Lucario, whose blue was replaced with red and its yellowish fur was now pure white. The two Lucario were chatting gladly with each other, occasionally messing around with aura balls, feet in the water. Nearby, Aspen the Treeko was trying to push Isis the Chikorita into the pool, with Ethan's Sewaddle watching and flailing two of its little arms in panic.

"Aspen stop being mean!" Tamira yelled as she and her twin ran down, before promptly shoving Tamara into the pool ahead of her, and standing around jumping happily on the side cheering afterwards, "You do it quickly or nothing at all!"

"Treeko! Tree!" Aspen said, pouting and stopping, giving Isis the chance to use her leaf to shove the other grass type starter into the water.

"G-Good on you!" Tamara said as she came up spluttering, shaking her hair out of her eyes, "Oh you are getting it now."

"BOMB!" Jayden then suddenly yelled as he came from nowhere and jumped into the pool as well, grinning as he did so, "Hey!"

"Here we go, madness time!" Tamira laughed as she jumped in too.

~X~X~X~

**_(Inside – 1:40pm – Nathen's Study)_**

As the door creaked open, Karyn giggled to herself, peeping inside the room to double check there was no one in there. The door wasn't even locked, considering how insistent Nathen had been about not coming in – but unlike he thought, it wasn't Tamira who he needed to worry about sneaking in. The information a guy like Nathen had would be of no interest to Tamira, but Karyn and her overly inquisitive mind was another story.

She closed the door silently and went over to the high tech computer, sitting down on the old office chair and turning it on, cursing the noise it made when turning on and quickly turning the speakers off. Once it turned on, it had a password lock to the account, but she hacked past that easily. It was once she got to the files that it got harder.

Each level had a new encryption, and she could see about twenty different levels before she even got to the files themselves, and then no doubt each file would have a different level of further encryption depending on how secret they were. She thought for a moment, then smirking she did something that was far ahead of her age: she pressed a single button, and every single file opened to her. She nearly squealed when she realised she'd got it right.

"No way would he spend that amount of time going through up to forty passwords every time he wanted to get into a file, he had to have a had a quick way in. All this is just to confuse hackers, no one would think of that," Karyn grinned happily, clapping her hands and quickly opening each file. She printed off copies of each file, memorising some, and then erased her path on the computer so it wouldn't register anyone had used it.

Shoving the files into her bag, she crept out of the room quickly, heading back to Alicia's old room, giggling to herself. Living with Jaspa, and with grandparents who had learnt things so many times and absorbed so much knowledge over the years, she had learnt a lot and her young mind was crammed with useful and useless information. Being around the many computers in her home from a young age had given her the opportunity to figure them out, and from the first day she hacked past her parents' parental locks, she had begun hacking into bigger and bigger things.

This was her best haul yet.

~X~X~X~

**_(Ethan's Room – 1:46pm – Ethan's room)_**

"What the _fuck_ are you thinking you crazy boy?!" Alicia barked, glaring at Ethan as he sat on his bed with his head in his hands, cursing himself. "Do you have any idea what kind of shit you're getting into?!"

"…You'll kick my ass even harder if I stay I've been doing it nearly since I started my journey, right?" Ethan said, looking up a little from his hands. Alicia's yellow eyes hardened further.

"You… what?!"

"I'm sorry! Look, I'm fine! I'm good at it; I've never had a really serious injury! I've also never killed anyone!" The boy said frantically, waving his hands around, looking at her over his glasses, whilst she stared back at him from behind her fake ones.

"Yet."

"No, never! In circuits, you don't kill and if you do and it could be avoided you're kicked out, I'm not going to kill!" Ethan insisted, standing up and towering over his older sister, "I'm not a killer, Alicia!"

"Well neither is dad but he's killed plenty of times!" Alicia snapped, before both of them realised what she'd said and brought up, and they momentarily fell quiet. Alicia spoke again first, "You say you haven't been badly hurt. Take off your shirt."

"…No. I won't. Alicia you're being insane, stop it. I'm fine. I'll drop out if it gets too risky, but I can kick ass! I'm not going to get hurt; I avoided all but one attack in my trial for this big circuit thing! I'll be fine!" The boy said sternly, looking straight into her eyes form above her.

"Shirt. Off."

Sighing, and knowing he wasn't going to get let go until he took his shirt off, and also not feeling like getting his ass served to him by his tiny sister, he pulled off his over shirt and then undid his button up shirt, showing his chest. He hoped it wouldn't be as alarming as he knew she was expecting, as he had healed so many of his biggest scars, and a lot had faded naturally, but he forgot about one thing. Closing her eyes momentarily, she then opened them with a dark red glow, as his chest and even face became awash with dark red light in varying tones and intensities as it revealed every single scar he'd gotten. There were blast scars, cuts, the large X on his chest, concentrated holes, slashes, gashes, burns, every kind of scar you can imagine, not even counting bruises which let no trace behind.

"Not hurt much, huh? No serious wounds, huh?" Alicia said with a dry, dark chuckle and hard eyes. Ethan gulped a little.

~X~X~X~

**OH MY FREAKING ARCEUS IS THIS WHAT I THINK IT IS?! A _CHAPTER_ NOT THAT LONG AFTER THE LAST!? HELL YES!**

**…Yes, I am back on a roll. For now. I have school and exams again in a week, boooo! I have a new plot to get to in SR as total motivation and Final Heir and I are both rather excited about it so FUCK YES! I know that barely anything has happened in this story so far, but I'm getting there! There's so many things to get done before they go to the gyms and stuff… fuck yes character development? Sorry for the GxN spam. I'm a bit over the top, it'll tone down a liiiiiiittle. **

**R&R!**


	5. Episode 5: No time for settling

**I'm back! I'm sorry I've been so damn long… I'm trying, I swear I am. I have so many things to keep up with and it's like… UGH. I'm going to try get back on track now. I sorta know where I'm going with this chapter, so I… yeah. Let's pray. **

**Episode 5 – No time for settling**

**"Last episode we saw our group arrive in Unova, where yet another family reunion occurred – Alicia Ashmore-Pierce revealing herself as Gem's first born child. The home that this family lived in for their early life together was then revealed to be the new base camp for the group, where private conversations could be held, and if necessary the group can hide out. However, we come back with some drama between the two Ashmore-Pierce siblings…"**

"What is _wrong _with you Ethan?! You really have gone fucking insane!" Alicia barked, fists clenched by her sides. Ethan groaned, resting his head on his hands as he shoved his shirt to the side and shook his head repeatedly. "You… You dumb fucking idiot!" Ethan looked up a little after this sentence, about to retort before realising his sister was practically crying – fat tears welling up in her eyes. He froze mid-sentence, moving his arms just as Alicia jumped at him and started punching him in the chest over and over, and yelling curses at him. He had no idea what to do except wrap his arms around her and try to soothe his smaller sister's anger, fear and upset.

"Alicia… I'm sorry… please calm down…" His chest was going a little numb, and some old bruises would definitely come back up if she kept hitting like she was.

"I-I bet you can't pull out of this now or you're going to end up dead without even a way to f-fucking fight back…" Alicia growled, sobbing a little and hitting his chest continuously still. "Why are you so dumb?!"

"Alicia… Shhh… please…"

"D-Dammit how did this happen… m-mom was here… b-but of course she was busy… dammit… if we were around more you'd be safe dammit…!" Alicia whimpered, looking at him.

"I am safe! I will not die, Alicia!" Ethan retorted, looking at her too as he wiped her tears. She lightly smacked his hand away and wiped her own tears away from her eyes and cheeks, snivelling once more before composing herself as she sat up.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't tell mom and dad." She said sharply, staring him right in the eyes.

"Because you know I can take care of myself, and don't want to make them panic and be unhappy during the time they get together." Her brother replied simply, blue eyes piercing her yellow orbs. She flinched a little, he'd inherited their mother's glare more than she had, but also… he was right. "Tell me one of your secrets."

"Why?!" She asked, jumping a little and stepping back.

"Insurance."

Alicia flinched a little, but giving a bitter nod she leant over to whisper into his ear: "I see thing from the future that I shouldn't… I've changed things that were meant to happen to save my own interests… and I hear voices… whispers… or a dark voice… no one knows. And no one else ever better know. Got it?"

Ethan nodded, hugging her gently to him, partly to hide his stunned face. "I got it sis… I'm sorry, but I need to know you won't tell…" She simply nodded, hugging him back and standing up, walking back towards the door of the room.

"I know, Ethan. Just remember… _Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead._" She left the room, Ethan remaining sitting as his face became more than simply stunned.

How much did she know?

~X~X~X~

**_(Pool – 3:00pm)_**

"Geronimo!" Tamira yelled as she jumped into the pool, which she had done countless other times in the past two or so hours. Their author and her husband simply sat watching everyone as they played, making sure nothing went wrong with all the Pokémon and preteens playing in the water.

"Mira! That went in my eyes!" Mara whined, splashing her as soon as she came back to the surface from her cannonball jump. The twin whined just as much, and a splash war quickly began between the two.

"What's the plan after here then mom?" Ethan asked, sitting on the edge of the pool with his feet in the water, his trunks black with white tribal designs on the sides of the legs. Alicia was swimming with Karyn nearby, whilst in her own red swimsuit, getting to know the girl she'd be bunking with for that night. Karyn herself was asking the majority of the questions, all about god knows what due to her overly inquisitive nature.

"Well, we have to give them the time I agreed on to explore Nuvema itself – not that that will take you guys all that long," Gemma began, "Then… well… For the first contest we'll have to head up to Accumula, but the first gym is all the way over in Aspertia… So we'll have to get a boat to Castelia, pass through it to another port, then get the boat back to Aspertia… It's going to be a long trip to the first gym."

"Castelia?" Ethan asked, sitting up a bit more, "Does that mean I can see them?" Nathen chuckled behind his wife, and nodded to his son, making the teen hiss a happy 'Yes!' right before the troublesome twins pulled him by his ankles into the water causing spluttering galore.

"Got 'im!" Tamira cheered, laughing and swimming off as quickly as she could. Tamara tried to swim off just as quickly, but she was a little slower, making Nathen raise an eyebrow as he started at her slightly slower and weaker pace. From what he'd known of the two, they'd always been equally matched; this was odd.

"Keep talking whilst I catch those two little rascals," Ethan chuckled, swimming after them. Gem rolled her eyes, leaning back more against her husband's chest.

"We'll have to go to the lab whilst we're here, get them anything else they may need from Juniper," She continued, talking loud enough for her son to hear her even on the opposite side of the pool.

"Wait, Juniper? She was the one who was around the Great-Grandpa and Grandma's era!" Karyn exclaimed, sitting up against the edge of the pool, her legs floating just under the surface straight out, "How can she still be around?"

"Well, it _could_ be her descendants, Karyn," Ethan said, currently holding the two girls around their torso with one arm each as they struggled, him holding on easily as he tread water.

"Actually, it's just her. I, uh… I got lazy and I created another time paradox or rip in time to make sure that we deal with the set of gym leaders I'm familiar with… Heh," The authoress said, scratching her head, "I am not making a whole new set like I did with Sinnoh, nu-uh. Too much time."

"…Okay you're getting tickled." Nathen said, rolling his eyes as he started to tickle his wife. She squealed, making Ethan facepalm from the embarrassment, whilst Alicia just giggled.

"This is worse than mom and dad, and they're terrible," Tamira said, pulling an exaggerated 'bleh' face as she continued to struggle against Ethan (who had managed to keep hold of both even with his facepalm). "Dammit Ethan! Let us gooooooo!"

"Nope! It's too much fun keeping you captive," The boy grinned, chuckling as they continued to struggle fruitlessly. Karyn giggled, starting to play with Jayden as well as talking to Alicia still.

"We're all gonna wanna get out soon before we actually become prunes, you know that right?" Alicia said, jumping up backwards to sit on the side of the pool, splashing some water towards the others with her feet, "I'm already wrinkling up."

"I'm not! …Oh, yep I am!" Tamira said, looking at her fingertips.

"I'll go make everyone something to eat. It'll be getting late soon, so we can eat then get everyone to bed, and then tomorrow Gem can set you all off to the lab before you all go to get the boat." Nathen said, standing up.

"Oi, stop bossing my charges around," Gemma pouted. Nathen just shook his head with a soft laugh and walked back inside to start cooking.

"I swear if we have to deal with you being all lovey the whole way through this journey I'm going to lose the ability to puke," Tamira groaned.

"Amen to that!" Ethan chuckled, heaving the twins onto the sides of the pool and then clambering up onto the edge himself, standing up, shooting a shot of heat through his skin to dry off, "Dry! I'm going to go help cook!"

"Put some clothes on!" Karyn giggled, swimming to the nearest steps and clambering out that way.

"Yeah yeah," He was clearly rolling his eyes, picking up his shirt and jeans as he walked past them where they were flung over a chair.

"Seriously bro! None of us wanna see you strut around the house in only your swimwear!" Alicia called after him.

Two pairs of cheeks went red.

~X~X~X~

**_(8:00pm – Twin's room)_**

"I certainly would _not_ have minded Ethan walking around shirtless for the rest of the day," Tamira giggled as she laid in her PJs: a baggy red shirt; a too long pair of baggy green trousers; and even a black nightcap.

"Mira!" Tamara said, her cheeks going red as she pulled her black shorts on under a long green nightdress, held on her shoulders by thick straps.

"Oh you know you feel the same." Her twin's cheeks only grew redder in response, making Tamira laugh and flop over onto her back, the end of her hat falling forward onto her face which made her pout. Tamara rolled her eyes, flipping the hat off her sister's face and then sitting on her own bed, crossing her legs and holding her skirt down with one hand whilst leaning on the other. "Think the Pokémon are all okay out back on that ranch thing?"

"Of course they are, Mira. God, this house is huge though isn't it?" Tamara smiled, looking around the room they were sleeping in. "To be honest we all could have comfortably slept in just one of these rooms."

"That is very true. And Jayden's in one on his own. That'll be interesting." The more mischievous of the two said, rolling her eyes, "Ethan's also alone in his room. I bet it has a window." Her twin looked at her confused, before Tamira teasingly wiggled her eyebrows making the girl's red cheeks go even redder as she threw a pillow at her.

"Tamira! No! That's creepy!" She squealed, Tamira laughing loudly at her as she threw the pillow right back.

"Take a joke," Mira grinned, squeaking and holding her hands up in her defence as pillows began to get flung back and forth. Laughter echoed around the room as a pillow fight began.

**_(8:01pm – Alicia's Old Room)_**

"How old are you?" Karyn asked, pulling her brightly coloured pyjamas on – a pair of orange shorts and bright pink t-shirt, the latter covered in blue hearts.

"Eighteen, why?" Alicia pulled back the covers on her bed, sitting on it with her hands behind her.

"And how old were you when you lived here?"

"Hm… I think we left somewhere between my fourth birthday and sixth… again, why?"

Karyn pointed to the painted on, childlike designs on the wall: A huge illustration of a child's idea of a house and a stick people family; another illustration in the same style of various Pokémon; "So those have been there up to 14 years? You'd think on coming back they'd change the walls."

Alicia looked where the girl was pointing, smiling lightly to herself, "I suppose… I guess mom was too nostalgic to get rid of them. I vaguely remember them taking my drawings and turning them into this… Ha."

"Oh!" The ginger girl said, clambering into her covers from the bottom up, then tucking the covers back in. "Is your hair natural? And your eyes?"

"You don't half ask a lot of questions… No, my hair is dyed to be like mom; she used to dye parts of her hair red and black. But my eyes are natural, one of her many forms had yellow eyes and those genes passed to me," Alicia lay herself down under her own covers, "Why do you get into bed that way?"

"Dad used to play a game where he'd chase me to bed so I'd go to sleep," Karyn giggled, "The quickest way into 'safe' – the bed – was through the bottom because it was closest to the door. It became a habit."

"Cute," Yawning, and pulling her covers up to her nose, Alicia turned on a small flame shaped light on her old end table, giggling as her Blazolf and shiny Embolf both jumped into the bed with her. She then flicked off the main light switch. "Go to sleep, brainbox."

"Oh shush up, uh… uh… Goth-girl?" Karyn said unsurely, making Alicia laugh as she closed her eyes.

"You need to work on the nicknames thing kid. Try again tomorrow. Night!"

**_(8:04pm – Jayden's room)_**

"_Jaydy Jaydy!_"

"Hiya!" Jayden grinned, waving to the girl on the other side of the video feed. Kiana, his little sister of about four, waved both her small hands back at him, brunette curls bobbing as she bounced a little on Nevee's lap.

"_Hiya Jaydy! Pokémon?_" Kiana asked cheerfully. It was now daytime all the way back in Kanto, so the girl was wide awake to be able to chat with her brother. The quirky boy grinned.

"Yep! I have a Pokémon now! He's a little Chimchar called Charlie, but he's out on a Pokémon Ranch right now so I'll have to show you tomorrow night, okay?"

"_Awwwwww! Okaaaaaay,_" She puffed her cheeks out alongside a pout, which Jayden returned.

"I promise, alrighty? Is Jax there?" He smiled, bouncing a little on his bed. Nevee smiled behind her daughter, leaning down and pulling up a smaller child, no older than one and with the same brunette hair, up onto her lap. The baby boy was happily sucking on his thumb, his other hand being waved in the air by Nevee. "Yay!"

"_He's good as gold still Jay,_" His mother giggled, holding the baby close, "_Hope you don't mind he sits playing with your old toys all day,'_ this was answered swiftly with an 'of course not!', '_We read to him out of the little books of your stories for them, but little Kiana here says we can't do the voices right._"

"Heh, only I can do the voices," Jayden grinned, "You still sleep though, right girly?"

"_Yep!_" Kiana giggled, clapping. The new trainer's grin grew.

"_Kiddo it's time you got to bed if your journey properly starts tomorrow,_" His mother smiled, blowing a kiss, "_Kiana, say goodnight to your big brother._"

"_Nighty night Jaydy!_" The little girl blew a big kiss and waved both hands at him as he smiled, blowing a kiss of his own back at his family.

"Night night! I'll see you tomorrow night!" He beamed. Nevee smiled, waving Jax's hands and then cutting the call off, the screen blipping to black. Jayden smiled, slipping under his covers and curling up, allowing himself to sleep.

**_(8:09pm – Ethan's room)_**

As Ethan buttoned up his black nightshirt he looked around his childhood room, the wallpaper on the walls as unchanged as the paintwork in Alicia's room – a childish space pattern. He chuckled lightly, tugging on skull patterned baggy trousers, clambering onto his bed.

"Well, my tastes really have changed since I was young," He chuckled to himself, letting his Charcolf jump onto his bed and his lap, where he began to pet him. "This old place… I can't believe it. Well, from tomorrow it's time to actually explore."

"Char!" The wolf Pokémon barked, nuzzling against his palm.

"Six regions I've been to so far… Monoko, Pokoh, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Kanto… Now Unova is crossed off the list. Hopefully these guys will be going off to Kalos next or I'm going to get so bored." Ethan chuckled to himself, laying back properly and looking up, laughing at the glow in the dark stars on his ceiling. "Goodnight Charcolf."

"Olf!"

~X~X~X~

**_(9:23am – Nuvema Town Centre)_**

"Whyyyyyyyyy did you make us meet out hereeeee?" Tamira whined, glaring at Gem as she stood in front of a semi-circle of her charges.

"Because if I said you could just wait downstairs at the house you'd take forever to get your asses out of bed. I know you guys' habits by heart, I've been watching you for ten years already," Gem said, rolling her eyes with her arms crossed.

"That… sounds really creepy when you say it like that…" Karyn muttered. The authoress sweatdropped, scratching the back of her head.

"…Uh… yeah… It did… well, uh, never mind that! Look, we're going to the lab today, and then depending on time we may be heading off up towards Accumula, but if it's too late we'll leave that 'til tomorrow and stay one more night in the house," Gemma continued, leaning back against a small wall, "At the lab you'll be able to get some more free supplies, and just get to know the professor in case we need her anywhere along the road,' she then looks to Karyn, 'I'm sure she'd also be glad to talk to you about her research." Karyn giggled a little shyly, nodding.

"We ready to go now then?" Ethan asked.

"Yep! I'm popping into the sky for a while now, so you guys make your way over there." She promptly vanished into thin air. Alright then! Shoo! To the lab!

"Give us chance!" Tamara pouted; everyone then moving off towards the laboratory as instructed. Eh get used to it, I was ten times bossier last generation. I was in the sky a lot more. You have it easier than your parents.

"I have to put up with you all the time anyway," Ethan said, hands in his pockets. Oh shush you.

~X~X~X~

**I'm sorry this took so long! Again, everything's been a little crazy – from exams to mini breakdowns, etc. It's been a mad time. Really. Hopefully I'll actually stick to keeping up with at least once a month updates now, and actually try to put a proper plot in the chapters, I understand this feels like a filler. My confidence has evened out, so I'm a liiiiiiittle better at being motivated – my exams are nearly over too. Next up is DtF, which I have a little started on, so let's pray for a quicker update there.**


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